Half A Chance At Innocence
by Minako Nine
Summary: Chapter 12-Complete Story! **Hiiro and Quatre are sent to another dimension for a little learning experience. Occ Angst, and OOC-ness
1. Taichi VS Death-Glare!

Half a Chance – At Innocence

There are some forces at work we can't possibly try to comprehend. Of course, an encounter with one is highly improbable. But for some reason, these forces deem it fit to give some people another chance at some of the things they have forgotten in life. Of course if you have a destiny to follow, a destiny that chases you wherever you go, you only ever have half a chance at anything.

In an outwardly serene world, Hiiro and Quatre find themselves with a chance to live peacefully. Perchance even regain lost innocence. But, not all is as it seems, and this dimension has problems of it's own, and the only ones capable to stop this worlds demise are children without the chance of innocence. The pilots want to leave, and finish what they started in their own dimension. But the only way back is by use of three major protocols from the formidable ZERO system…

Disclaimer: Think this freak owns Gundam Wing and Digimon? Very wrong you are. She barely owns the poor battered laptop she types this upon. Or the CD player blasting out Digimon and Gundam Wing songs

Quickly, I must say this. Well Hello There, I'm Minako 9. I'm somewhere in between Duo and Quatre… scary, huh? I have this habit of ending stories by killing off my favorite character… lets pray for Quatre's sake that I don't do it here! Anyway, these three chapters are going up in guilt. These three chapters should not be posted. I was planning on finishing the whole arc before posting anything, but I'm going on holiday for two weeks and I won't have much time to write. I'm taking my laptop, but there is no Internet connection where I am staying. I'm not sure there is even a phone… anyway, I felt like posting this for you all because I am bored. As previously stated, this is the first story in an Arc, which will all too soon become apparent. Please, review! No flames for the spelling of Hiiro. That's just stupid, ya know!

(AN: Don't ask about how I started this. I couldn't start it properly)

Yagami Taichi sighed as he stared out the window. Another mundane day, one full of regular activities. A day full of normality, organization, and repetitiveness. And he hated it. There needed to be action, needed to be a threat of some sort. Or, at least something to _do. _Something new. What he needed right now was someone new, someone with secrets or something like that. That would be interesting. He continued to stare out the window, into the clouded sky, when a blinding flash of light filled the windows. The whole class turned to see in amazement, and soon after was the familiar rumbling of thunder. _That's more like it,_ Taichi thought with a smile. The clouds darkened and raindrops pelted down onto the street. That's when he saw two figures quickly leaving the path in his direct view.

"That was weird earlier, doncha think Taichi?"

"…"

"Taichi? Taichi, you alive? Taichi!"

"…"

"TAICHI! TAICHI! TAICHI!"

"Huh? Hey, you say something?"

Taichi looked at his friend Yamato distantly.

"Taichi, what's on your mind?"

"Oh, I'm just thinking about how boring everything is now… and how it's not right. And that lightning sure was weird. The weather-guy said it would just rain a bit today."

"When has the weather-man ever been right?"

"It's not just that…" Taichi sighed, and to Yamato it was obvious that there was more to this then simple weather patterns. "When the lightning passed, I looked down on the path and there were two people there. They weren't there before, and nothing human moves that fast. I'm wondering if something is happening…"

Yamato looked at his friends' distant expression. However idiotic Taichi acted, sometimes he could help but have a point. And, this was one of those times. Something was brewing now, and maybe it was something to do with their experience of being chosen children that let them sense these things. Or maybe… maybe they were just getting paranoid.

The day ended in it's normal fashion, a visit to the elementary school to check up on their friends, a desperate plea for reason behind their obvious paranoia. Luckily, Taichi and Yamato got just that.

"Yeah, at about the time of that flash of light there was a strange surge of power in the Digital World. I don't know what could have caused it, but I have a theory that it might have been some sort of dimensional rift opening up." Izumi Koushiro stated the facts quickly,

"Like a digiport?" Yamato asked, not quite understanding what the younger redhead meant.

"Almost. Except it was more like a Digiport from a different dimension, and also went straight into this world. I don't know what could have been traveling through that portal, so it looks like we have a mystery on our hands."

_Oh great, _Taichi thought,_ something interesting. At least we're not just getting paranoid._

The next was not as uneventful as the one before. In fact, it was more so. Taichi seemed to be getting his wishes granted. First, a mystery to solve. Now…

"Good Morning class. Now today, we have two new students, and when they arrive, please make them feel welcome, okay?"

Taichi looked up from his now daily task of staring out the window, and around the room. Two new people? At once? In the same class? Maybe they were twins or something… he scanned the room, looking for where the empty desks were. Two next to him, great. This would be the end of his wishes. They just kept coming true.

Not too much later after that announcement from the teacher, there were three sharp knocks on the door.

"Come in," the teacher called to whoever was on the other side. The door opened (AN: Nah!) and two boys entered the room. The first had messy dark hair and piercing Prussian eyes. His eyes were almost undetectably surveying the room. Only Taichi would notice weird things like someone looking around a room and think it suspicious. The second was a little neater, blond bangs hanging awkwardly over cerulean eyes. Taichi barely noticed the fact that there was some conversation going on, but he couldn't hear it. Whoever these two were, Taichi saw in them something he hated – that look of one who grew up too fast, someone who had lost innocence long ago. But yet, Taichi recalled how he constantly saw this in himself much more than he would like to. _Yeah, like every day. But I have reason, do I not? After all, I had to grow up fast when I was 11. Even if I don't want to admit it. But what could _they_ have done? It's not like they're chosen children, we know where they all are. Hmm… maybe I am getting a little hypersensitive…_ It now came to his attention that he had missed their names, and would now have to use the ones he came up with. Glare Boy, the brunette, was now seated next to him, and when Taichi faced to properly greet him, he got an intense death glare. He instantly gave up the idea of a friendly introduction, deciding that now his name was Death-Glare Boy._ Oh boy… he's sure set to make a _lot_ of friends,_ Taichi thought sarcastically. He almost said it out loud. No, shouldn't do that. Who knows, Death-Glare might have a gun or something. (AN: Nice observation Taichi)

So, that lesson went by normally enough, well, except the constant lurking suspect in Taichi's head that Death-Glare could read minds through… uh… Death-Glaring… and thus now hated him or something. That boy sure liked to stare! Did he even do any work?

At the end, Taichi had to hand in the work he had done. Not much. He never liked math anyway, that was Izzy's job. And his mind had been on other things (like always) so he hadn't done much. He practically ran out of the room afterwards (recess – double math always sucks best before a break) until he noticed Death-Glare and Blondie (hey, he only knows three other blonds and they have names) were talking to the teacher. Or rather the teacher was talking and Death-Glare was glaring at Taichi. Oh boy. Blondie was blushing. The teacher was praising them maybe? Death-Glare didn't seem to like praise, and then Taichi decided to listen in a little more. This time he heard a mention of Izzy, and… was that himself? OH BOY. Bad Day. (AN: Anyone watch Jackie Chan Adventures?)

*Lunch*

"Death-Glare isn't glaring at me anymore. I feel like I free or something!"

"Um… Taichi? What are you talking about?" A girl with sandy-blond hair and sharp green eyes by the name of Keika (AN: It's Yama!) asked half-mockingly, half-worriedly.

"Well, that guys with the nasty glare… he's been glaring at me all day, and now he's just talking, not glaring at me at all. Now I'm happy."

"Uh… Taichi, you're really weird. This guys name is Death-Glare?"

"No, that's just the name I came up with."

"So… this guy has been in the same lessons as you all day, and you never picked up on a name?"

"No, he was too busy glaring to give me one. He was sitting next to me for two hours."

"Never heard of a REGISTER?"

"Nope, can't say I have!" Taichi said happily.

"Ah-ha, that's more like the baka I know!" Keika added, happy at Taichi's change in attitude. "So, there's a new student and you aren't planning some bizarre prank?"

"Correction: two new students. And if I played a prank on them the Glare-Boy would probably kill me. He's probably been silently saying 'Omae o korosu' to me all day or something."

"Aw, afraid he'd glare you to death? Where is this guy anyway?"

Taichi sighed. "I'm not going to point, it's rude, and he'll probably see me."

"Man, this guy must be real intense to scare the almighty Taichi," a new voice said from behind.

"Yamato, that's scary! I don't know what that guy sounds like, how do I know you're not him?"

"Never mind. He anywhere near the food? We can walk past to get some."

"But I don't need any!"

Yamato promptly picked up some of the stuff Taichi had, followed by Keika. They both ate the stuff quick as possible.

"Got money? You'll need it!"

Taichi sighed and headed off to get food. Alone.

When he neared the table of the two newbies whom he would usually be tormenting by now, he caught snippets of their conversation. Only snippets though, because they kept slipping into English. Taichi was never very good at English. He usually left that stuff to Izzy… now he had a sense of déjà vu. He left everything to Izzy. But for all the… um… big-haired brunettes faults, he could still interpret a conversation by the tones pretty well. After a while they stuck to one language, which was (luckily) Japanese.

"I know we have to get back, but you could at least act a little normal."

"By staying here we are endangering the mission."

"We don't have a mission at the moment. The others can handle it. They do have help, you know. We have to find out how to get back, but at least try and act naturally. This could be the closest we ever get to peace for a long while…"

Taichi didn't really understand now, a mission? Get back where? Oh well, they were a little out of his hearing. He had stopped. Now he kept walking, smiling, as he caught what seemed to be the end of the conversation.

"Fine. I'll wait. But if things go wrong, omae o korosu." So Death-Glare Boy did death threats as well? The last line almost made him laugh out loud. Now he could be nice and say something.

"When a death threat becomes a multipurpose phrase, you know you need help. Trust me, I've had my fair share," he said with a smile, as he walked off. He, Taichi, had said something witty, smart, and with a hidden meaning at the same time. Oh boy. The others would never hear the end of this. Maybe Death-Glares all day gave him smarts or something… or maybe there was a cosmic imbalance of… uh… really big size… that made him smart. Maybe leaving the thinking bit to Izzy WAS the smart thing after all.

-End Chapter

AN: I did a whole chapter, all about Taichi! And with two pilots, without ever using their names! I'm smart! No… if this is screwed up it's my own fault, I'm not one for blaming Taichi's image song, Yuuki Wo Tsubasa Ni Shite, or Izzy's image song, Version Up, for the large involvement of digimon characters in this chapter. Nor can I blame the 'Omae O Korosu' club for Taichi's line about death threats ('Not everyone is crazy like you and understands 'Omae O Korosu' as a multipurpose phrase!')


	2. Smart people should never get together.....

Half a Chance – At Innocence

Taichi: You two new guys who have no names to me? See those two? *Points to Sora and Yamato, who are having a lovely chat* they're both mine. No looking.

Hiiro: Hn.

Quatre: We're taken anyway.

Taichi: I haven't decided which one I want more. *Points at Minako* She's a Taito and Taiora fan.

Quatre: You aren't listening. We're called for. They're yours. We'll… um… I'll still talk to them. *Also points at Minako* She's weird and changes her mind. She might stick you with the Yama girl, Keika

Keika: Hi, I'm Keika, I'm blond, I got green eyes, and sometimes I'm in a very Relena mood

Hiiro: *Gets vexed expression on his face* Hn. I'm not emotionless you know, and I do have an opinion, Minako. *Joins in the pointing* She actually agrees with me. And she scares me.

Ken Ichijouji: Minako wants to put me with Daisuke for this fic! *Aw… such a cute couple*

Taichi: Just saying… those two are on reserve for when she… I make my mind up.

Quatre: Is it just me, or do those two look like they're going out with each other?

Minako: *Unfazed by pointing* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don't like Sorato! ACK! *Tackles Yamato* Okay Yamato, you stay away from Sora! You guys are not a couple when I'm in control!

*Hits Yamato multiple times. Jun sees this somehow and bashes Minako. Hiiro thinks it looks fun and joins in. So do Keika and Taichi. Ken, Quatre, and Sora, being the… um… sensible ones, try to stop the madness to no avail. Relena shows up and starts bashing Minako for bashing Hiiro back. Now Duo, Trowa, and Wufei have joined them. Duo joins the dog pile and hits Jun in the face a lot. Trowa stands on the edge and kicks people when they come close. Wufei rants about justice, and starts to hit Minako for writing this. The sensible ones have given up and gone for ice cream*

Ken: *at ice-cream place* I'm getting Vanilla. It was always my favorite flavor!

Quatre and Sora: Mine too!

*They realize they have so much in common… I guess… and talk*

*Back at Dog-Pile*

Minako: GET OFF ME! THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! *Gets kicked by Trowa* BARTON! Bring me a bat! *Gets bat, as requested, and bats off all the anime characters, who for some reason, are all chibifyed*

Taichi: As I was saying, they're both mine… hey? Are we missing people?

*Someplace else*

Ken: And then I had to go home…

Sora: Aw, that's so sad! I've never heard something like that before…

Quatre: *sob*

Disclaimer: I own that weird scene, I own the story I wrote to make up for that weirdness, but I don't actually own any of the characters. Well, I do own Keika. Off the subject.

Dedication: To Lewis Wick, though he'd probably never read this, to Kattie, who'd also probably never read this, to those who are kind enough to read, to those kind enough to review, and to Yama, for being somewhere round the corner with lovely data disks for me!

(AN: Can't start this one either – bear with me)

Izzy sighed. Some days are far too boring. He had done all the homework, all the schoolwork, well, just about everything, and all he had left was the problem with the digital world. And the only information he had gotten was some kind of algorithm that even he, the great Izumi Koushiro could crack it alone. Perhaps Ken could help. He was supposed to be a math genius as well. Breaking algorithms is a nice way of bonding… or something like that… once again Izzy scribbled on the sheet of paper with the algorithm at the top. Not even his trusty laptop could break the formula down. Oh how the mighty hath fallen.

Death-Glare Boy seemed to be death glaring some more, it appeared to Taichi. At least Taichi had gotten used to the glaring. Taichi was quick to adjust to threats at his life by now. But usually it wasn't silent death stares, it was harsh words. Hey, Death-Glare could probably do that too. Maybe he was really a weird evil dude from another dimension or something like that. And just how did Glare-Boy know the blond kid? He was a lot nicer than Death-Glare, and Death-Glare hadn't exactly made any attempt to talk to anyone else. Maybe he was shy? Maybe someone else needed to say the first words! Haha! Taichi is smart! He stood up (in the lesson?) and walked over to where Death-Glare was. He was smiling… nervously, but that the best even Taichi could do under such a scrutinizing stare.

"Hey, so you're new here?" Aw, stupid question. "That was kind of a stupid question, of course you're new here. So, did you transfer here from another school?"

"…"

No reply huh? That was kinda rude… ah well; this is Taichi we're talking about. He wouldn't let this go even if Death-Glare pulled out a gun and said 'Omae o korosu'. Which wasn't far off the mark to the norm for DG.

"Well, um, did you just move here or something?"

For Taichi, this was getting annoying. For Glare-Boy, this was getting more annoying. He didn't have his story straight yet! So all he said was, "My name is Hiiro Yui."

"Um… okay… My name is Taichi. It's uh… nice to meet you? Um… I have to finish my work now… uh… bye!" With that Taichi walked away VERY fast to where he sat. On the other side of the room, luckily. Sometimes Taichi wished he wasn't so… smart?

Hiiro was very annoyed. (AN: Leave Hiiro alone. This is all for my plot.) Some weird kid was trying to be friendly. That was weird. Oh yeah, and he was stuck in some other time or place or something with Quatre. Hiiro didn't like Quatre. Actually, Hiiro didn't like any of the other pilots that much. They were too different from him. It was annoying. Hiiro is easily annoyed… ah well; it's not Duo or Relena. Hiiro couldn't bear the thought of being stuck with them. Duo was annoying and wasn't exactly the most intelligent person ever. Especially since the people in this place only seemed to speak Japanese. Duo could not speak Japanese. Plus he was just plain annoying. Relena was more so. She would be constantly bugging him about stuff. She wasn't exactly smart either. And there was an algorithm to solve that might just get them back. Neither of those two would help this. Actually, neither would Wufei. He wasn't any good at math. Sure, he was smart, just no good at math. Trowa's apparent inability to talk might cause serious repercussions here. So maybe being stuck with Quatre wasn't so bad. He could speak Japanese (very well) help work out the algorithm and maybe make up some story or something… but he was still annoyingly weak in Hiiro's opinion at least. (AN: I decided this was set just after Quatre vs. Heero – they were in the Sanc Kingdom by now? I dunno. And I'll explain Hiiro at the end of the chapter, kay?)

Izzy groaned in frustration. None of the teachers in this school had been able to help him with the algorithm. In fact, when given the full thing, they couldn't even get as far as Izzy had, without his trusty laptop, and that wasn't far at all. No, dear Koushiro needed the help of someone else. Ken couldn't get much farther than he had, but it was an improvement. Izzy should have remembered that ever since Ken said bye-bye to the Dark Seed (?) he hadn't been as smart or athletic as before. No, Izzy needed the help of a genius… or a miracle… maybe if he asked Steven Hawking real nice he might help. No, that was another useless plan. Surely there was someone in the same school as him, same age or maybe older, that was smarter? Izzy quickly calculated the odds in his minds and sighed some more. It looked like praying for a miracle was the only option.

"Excuse me, Koushiro?"

Izzy turned to see the lady he knew as Taichi's math teacher. He looked at her in confusion.

"Koushiro, if you have the time, would you be able to help out a new student with some kind of formula? It's very confusing, and I thought you might be able to help."

Yes! Something to take his mind off of this! Probably some simple formula, but anything to help!

"O-Okay…"

"Thank you Koushiro. Stay here!"

He didn't really feel like doing much else, and not long later, the same teacher appeared with a confused looking blond in tow. (Yay! Two of my fave bishies in the same place!)

"Koushiro, Quatre. Quatre, Koushiro. BAI!" The teacher ran off. She had almost forgotten she had a class to teach.

Uncomfortable situation. Two quiet, polite people (not to mention they both get called short) standing uncomfortably. (Very bad. I hate these situations)

"Ano… Um… I'm Izumi Koushiro. It's very nice to meet you," Izzy was always very polite.

"It's nice to meet you too. My name is Quatre." Quatre is very polite too.

"So uh… you were supposed to need some help with a formula or something?" Yay Izzy. Go get a conversation, and UNCOMFORTABLE conversation, started now.

"Of course…" Well, Quatre found a bunch of papers in his (weird little) case (thingy). "It's some kind of algorithm. I figured some of it out, but I just can't seem to do the rest." Izzy got the bunch of very neat papers. The papers were neat, which is always good when you're handling numerous pages, but the hand-writing was barely readable (have you seen Quatre's handwriting? It's like calligraphy!! Plus, these are numbers, and he's not Japanese, so maybe he's a little rusty at writing in the old hiragana/katakana/kanji/roman numerals, and maybe he had to translate the whole thing from western numbers)

But even in calligraphic bad hiragana/katakana/kanji/roman numerals, Izzy could make out the top as the algorithm. He set the papers on a desk neatly (Izzy's neat too ya know!) and found his own papers. Yep, same algorithm. But how did some kid he'd never seen before get hold of a rather complicated algorithm for the digital world? Well, this new person had gotten a lot further than Izzy had. Izzy now found the time to look at the papers, and saw that it was a different part of the algorithm to what he had done. Silly Izzy! He'd done the hard stuff first! Well, the other stuff was pretty much done. Now there were other notes, in clearer writing, and better writing at that (Hiiro is Japanese, apparently. He sure kinda looks it…) Ah, more people have been working on the algorithm! Izzy got out his trusty laptop, which had since retrieved (well he has a free period. What else is a computer freak gonna do?) And added the new calculations into some kind of program.

"Uh… can you help me then?"

Oh. Silly Izzy! Izzy doesn't have much common sense, even if he is polite. "Oh, sorry. It's just I've been working on this one myself. Where did you find such a complicated problem?"

Quatre shrugged. In all honesty, he didn't really know where it had come from. It was just on Hiiro's trusty laptop when they… woke up?

"How long have you been working on it?"

"About a day,"

Izzy almost did something very out of character and mumble a stream of incoherent babble that sounded much like 'Wha?' But instead, he regained his composure and just stared in surprise.

"I haven't done as much as I would have liked to though,"

Izzy had to now take this into consideration. He'd also been working on the algorithm for a day only, and he'd gotten hardly anywhere. People considered him a genius. He even had a very nice high IQ. About 179 or something (My IQ is 100. what's yours?) So how had some strange kid get further than him? And have help?

"Um, have you ever taken an IQ test?" Izzy asked dumbly. NOT good. Geniuses don't ask stupid questions. Okay, so maybe that was just a stupid rhetorical question. But still, it was weird to say to someone you hardly knew.

"No… why?"

"Gomen ne. That was a silly question. I was just wondering, since you've done all this in one day, and I've hardly done anything in the same amount of time. I'm supposed to be a genius. So I'm just surprised someone could do better."

Quatre blushed. At least Duo was not here. He'd make weird comments. He'd ask if anyone could feel the nervousness in the room. But then… that meant Duo wasn't there! Ah! "Well… it wasn't me… I had a lot of help, you see, from my friend… of sorts…"

"It doesn't matter, I'm not really all that smart anyway,"

AH! Stuck in a room with two modest smart people! Two modest smart naïve people, at that!

The tension could not be broken better than Taichi running in and stating rather loudly

"Oh I'm so glad that's over! You're so lucky Izzy, double free period? What did you do, mark the tests for the teachers or something? Anyway, I've had one helluva day. There was this guy who kept giving me evils…" By now Taichi has noted that there are three people in the room, not two. "…Anyway I'll tell you later about that… uh… Hi! My name is Yagami Taichi!… Um… you're new, huh? So uh… what's that like?" Lame Taichi, real lame. It was Glare-Boys um… next death threat? "Um… I should be going now… BAI!" Taichi ran off again, mumbling something about the karma of not playing pranks on newbies. Only to accidentally run into Glare-Boy.

"Oh um… HI! Hiiro, right? I'm uh… no good at names! Uh… sorry for running into you… I was in a hurry… and I saw your friend! In there!" Taichi pointed ecstatically to the room he had just run out of. "I think they're talking about smart-people things bai!" And for the third time, Taichi broke off into a nervous sprint to… Kami-knows-where. Taking Taichi's advice (who would have thought! Hiiro taking advice! Taichi giving advice which is taken!) Hiiro went into the lovely but rather small computer room… I think… and he had his trusty laptop too. Sure enough, Quatre was there, now talking to Izzy again. But you probably knew that. It's not like they heard Hiiro coming and climbed out the window or something.

"Oh, hello Hiiro-san," Quatre is very polite by the way. Uses nice suffixes and everything! "You remember the algorithm? We've almost finished it now."  
Hiiro said nothing. Instead he plugged in his computer. Typical Hiiro response. Then he pulled some kind of wire out of his case (thingy) and put it in a port on the computer. Hiiro then took Izzy's trusty laptop and hooked the other end of the wire to another port. He then turned his own trusty laptop on, and typed some code in. Then he took all the once neat notes on the algorithm and made them messy again, so he could read them. Of course, three different styles of writing, and only one his own very recognizable one, he took a little longer than usual. But then this is Hiiro. He still did it damn fast. After he was apparently done with the notes, he grabbed Izzy's laptop (poor Izzy! No one every tried to take his pineapple before) and repeated the process. He then typed in some new stuff on both at the same time (damn he's good!) and finally pressed [Enter] key. There was a VERY loud shrieking sound, but that abruptly subsided.

Now both computers displayed the message in DOS

[Enter program ZERO codes 1171, 1623, 8821]

"Uh… program ZERO?" Izzy asked in slight surprise.

Hiiro still didn't say anything. He seemed to be silently sighing. Then he spoke, almost sadly.

"I really thought that would work…"

Now he was stuck. Hiiro wasn't going to know ZERO protocols! He didn't have the time to check them over yet, and the fact that Wing Zero had gone AWOL in his homeland, meant he wouldn't have a chance to.

Quatre was still looking down, now very upset. Some things shouldn't be brought up again. All he said, very quietly, was "I know those codes…"

(AN: It's Midnight now, the day before an exam. Wait, it's midnight, which means it's the next day, which mean I'VE GOT AN EXAM TODAY! WAAAAAAAAAAA! Was gonna finish here, but had to redeem myself for my earlier AN. Plus I had a better idea)

Hiiro didn't look up. He knew all he'd do was glare anyway, and sometimes there isn't time for glaring. "You do?" Was his fairly flat answer.

"I wrote the program… I'd have to, wouldn't I?"

"Well?"

"I… *sigh* I don't know… I don't think we should try that. Those are three main protocols of the system. Who knows who might want them?"

Izzy, however, was almost perplexed by the situation. How did they get the algorithm for some odd dimensional portal from the digital world? How did they crack it so fast? What did the digital world have to do with this ZERO program they had written? Correction; the ZERO program Quatre had written, and obviously was nervous about. Wait… genius mode slowly kicking in, Koushiro managed to piece it together. The portal, the strange algorithm, the fact these two had just shown up that day, the fact they seemed to be in a world all their own… that was it!

"That's it!" Izzy said, without even realizing it.

"What?" was all he got from Hiiro. Now Izzy was being scrutinized under the dark-eyed boys gaze. He wasn't fazed – it took a lot more than a small stare to faze him - but still, he got his first good look at his eyes. They were dark, very dark, but not naturally. It was more like Hiiro had aged far before his time, seen so much, and thus diminished his spirit. But he was far from weak; there was also some great power that resonated from those orbs said to be the window to the soul, that Koushiro occasionally saw in Taichi. It wasn't, however, a very good thing. Izzy noticed the fact that he wasn't talking.

"Oh… well… yesterday there was some kind of dimensional disturbance, and that's when this algorithm showed up. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you two were sent though the dimensional rift to here. And now, I'm guessing that you need to enter those ZERO codes or whatever to go home!"

Quatre smiled wistfully, but still didn't look up. Actually, he hadn't really looked up much at all, except to note Hiiro's presence. "But that still doesn't explain why we came here… and I can't enter those codes… I guess we weren't meant to come here, ne?"

Izzy sighed. This might take a while "This is gonna sound pretty crazy eventually, but if you're here, you're here for a reason. People don't just dimension-hop for no reason."

"So what?" was Hiiro's placid response.

"So… it looks like someone needs you here…"

TO BE CONTINUED

Right. Explanation. Hiiro is under the impression that Quatre is weak, and that's why he doesn't like him. Well, Hiiro doesn't really like anyone. He finds faults in everyone, easily. Himself, his inability to express in true intensity his emotions. He's not emotionless, he just doesn't show the emotions people note readily – Compassion, loyalty, kindness, warmth… this is because he thinks it a very weak thing to show such emotions readily. Quatre does this. Thus, Quatre is weak. Plus, his physical and mental strength appear to be fairly minimal, and he's ready to trust anyone, which everyone will agree is a very naïve thing to do. I don't agree with what I think Hiiro thinks, and Hiiro changes his mind (well he tell Quatre to use the ZERO system, for Kami's sake!) Things change in this story though, quickly I'll tell you. It shouldn't give away the plot. Hiiro explains himself, and learns to express his emotions and not let them be used as a weakness. Quatre has strength! All will be revealed later!


	3. Guilty Guilty Guilty...

Half a Chance – At Innocence

Hiiro: Minako does not own the story any more, I do! Hehe…

Ken: Mr. Yui, Minako DOES own the story. She doesn't own Gundam Wing and Digimon!

Minako: That's right! And that classes as a disclaimer!

Hiiro: Minako is evil.

Minako: Shut up, or I might have to draw some A type blood from you

Hiiro: Don't do that it's rare.

Minako: So it is… I don't need it… I've just gotten very interested in blood types. I wanted to know what rare, not very rare, kinda regular, and crossover. And my friend gave me info on the Gundam pilots about blood types. So I KNOW ALL! My mum says that I have either O type or O- type blood. I have the same blood as Quatre! *Gets creepy fan-girl look in her eyes*

Leita: She's become a fan girl…

Izzy went on to explain the concept of the digital world to the two young pilots (?) who listened. By the end of his explanation, he had the sudden sense he might have said too much. Oh well, he didn't use any names. They guessed he was involved otherwise he wouldn't know about it. Izzy also noted the fact that Hiiro seemed to want no-one to know of their real reason for being in this school, in this city, at this time. So, Izzy called a truce.

"Okay. I understand that fact that mentioning to anyone that you just transferred here from another dimension would be a bit weird. But you have to understand that only about 11 other people know what you do. You must not tell ANYONE, and I'll do likewise. There isn't any problem with that, right? Good. Anyway, I think I deserve a little explanation of yourselves, since I just told you some stuff I really shouldn't have. And if you don't really want to, could you at least explain this ZERO program?"

Quatre looked fairly close to tears. He didn't really want to be reminded of the awful things he had done only days ago. Quatre was surprised that Hiiro hadn't actually mentioned anything about it, he thought maybe the 01 pilot would condemn him, or at least mention it. But, no. Well, he didn't really need anyone to rebuke him; he was doing a pretty good job on his own. Bad Quatre. He killed all those innocent people for no reason. And then, his closest friend. What kind of person does that?

(AN: Note that Quatre doesn't actually know that Trowa is alive yet. I know all)

"Well… the ZERO system is a program that manipulates a part of the mind which cannot be used naturally. It predicts an opponent's move, and sometimes it can show you things from the past, the present, the future, and sometimes just random things. But… the problem is, the system can take control, leading the user to very… genocidal techniques… and it also makes you loose the most important thing you have…"

"What's that?" Izzy was curious to exactly how a system to that effect could be used, or, moreover, why. He didn't notice that fact that it seemed to be tearing the blond pilot apart to talk about it.

"Well… I guess… it's different for different people…"

"So why would something like that even be needed?"

This time, Hiiro, in his cold placid voice replied. "For war."

"War?"

"There is a war. No matter what happens, there is always someone out there who still wants to fight." Hiiro sighed, and looked at his watch. "We shouldn't be talking about this now though, another time. Your friend would be back, it's the end of school."

"I can send him to do something else. Anyway, you seem to have made quite an impression on him. He'll try to stay out of your way, that's for sure," Izzy smiled warmly and Hiiro nearly laughed. The thought of walking around in this building with the annoying guy hiding from him was kind of amusing.

Izzy kept smiling as he studied the coding Hiiro had done. Very nice. Hiiro has a nice laptop too. Izzy could briefly hear the thought 'I want one!' running through his head, but the was reminded by his logical side that, well, he wasn't going to get one. And the main reason for that was the fact that it came from another dimension entirely. Koushiro then took the time to note that Hiiro wasn't smiling so much any more, and the fact that he seemed to answer the question a little too quickly, and pushed the subject away a little too eagerly. It was obvious that Hiiro didn't seem to have much problem actually talking about the war, so why stop? Izzy, proving once again that he deserved the crest of Curiosity instead of Knowledge, decided to pry.

"So, do you… fight in the war?"

"Yes." Izzy noticed once again the need to get away from this subject in Hiiro's tone. Sure, he didn't seem to mind talking about the war, but then, Taichi seemed to be a bumbling idiot as opposed to a leader.

"Are you a good guy or a bad guy?" The shrug that Koushiro received in reply really did seem to say 'Don't know' as opposed to 'Don't care'. "Well, are you fighting for the right thing?"

"Probably." The sureness in the answer was… not exactly what it could have been.

"Do you try to fight for what's right?"

"Yes." Izzy knew Hiiro was being brief, but he would not be shaken off. He could guess that Hiiro didn't tend to go into detain too often, but… he was still answering too fast, and it looked like there was more he wanted to say.

"So… do you both fight?"

"Yes." How come Hiiro was the only one willing to answer now?

"Is there any particular reason?"

"Mission." It seemed that this one word made perfect sense as an answer… to anyone except Koushiro, who was fast turning into that cat that got korosu-ed by curiosity.

"Uh… elaborate, please."

"I fight because it's my mission. And, I suppose, in the process I've begun to fight for peace, and begun to believe in it." Oh. That seemed to really cover it properly. So, Hiiro could go into detail, at least a little bit. Wasn't much more he could ask Hiiro.

"So, um… what about you?" Izzy directed the question at Quatre, who all of a sudden didn't look so good. When he didn't get an answer, Koushiro was tempted to prompt. Lucky he didn't.

"I'm not all that sure any more…" Well, that was a bit of a stupid answer, in Koushiro's mind.

"How can you not know why?" Oops. That wasn't supposed to be said out loud. Hehe…

"Well… I suppose I was fighting for peace in the beginning… but then, how can I say that now when it's me who ruined it when it had a chance?" Yay! An answer! Albeit a strange answer, but an answer to a rhetorical question that should have stayed inside of his head. Then he noticed Hiiro's almost unnoticeable internal sigh and wondered what was so wrong about this situation. Time to ask a good question. A well thought-out question. A logical question. A-

"So what exactly did you do to wreck everything?" A question that wasn't so insensitive.

"Taichi…" Izzy groaned in response to the sight of his rather tactless friend.

"Hey," he replied with a smile, then back to the question. "So, what was it?"

"…"

"Come on! It can't be that bad! I've done some pretty bad stuff, so I bet you can't match up!" Taichi was obviously trying to do his well known 'I can't beat me' routine. But, Hiiro didn't look in the least bit amused. It was obvious then that the stoic youth was pretty convinced Taichi could have done anything as bad as… well, whatever. If he were anyone else he would have told Taichi to leave it, but he was Izumi Koushiro, the most annoyingly curious person he knew. So instead he listened.

But, then, someone always has to ruin the fun of Izumi Koushiro. This time, it was Hiiro.

"Quatre, go home."

"Hmm?"

"Go home."

"Okay…" Quatre simply left. No arguments. Izzy was half-tempted to voice his thoughts. 'What a strange exchange…' was as far as he would have got, had Hiiro not slammed the door (in a Hiiro way), pulled a gun out of… nowhere and aimed it at Taichi.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" was the loud response from the Izumi youth. Hiiro paid no heed.

"How much did you hear?"

Taichi was grinning like the Cheshire cat, and Koushiro was pretty sure that Hiiro was just getting angrier about it.

"Relax!"

"How much did you hear?" Hiiro repeated the question in monotone, and his eyes were set to Death Glare Magnification 1000x by the looks of things. Though unconvinced before, Izzy became pretty sure that the gun was fully operational, fully loaded, and fully ready for Taichi to korosu-ed. Now HE was the cat no one heard from for a long while. Maybe he should intervene.

"Hiiro, this is Taichi. Taichi, Hiiro. Now, would please put the gun down and shake hands?"

"How much did you hear?"

"Calm down! Please! All I heard was about why you fight and stuff. Are you guys like, new CCs or something? Izzy?" Koushiro knew all too well when Taichi was giving silent pleas. He did it quite a lot, actually.

"Hiiro, there is no need to attempt to kill Taichi. It doesn't really matter if he knows, he is a chosen, in fact, and he is the main leader. I'd have to tell him eventually anyway. Taichi, Hiiro is from another dimension. That's all."

"Oh. I thought it would be bigger." Then Taichi went into what seemed to be a thoughtful pose, and snapped out quite quickly. "Hey, how come you made the other kid go away? Things sounded like they were going to get interesting!" Izzy signaled Taichi to be quiet, and, after all, who was Taichi to question the great wisdom of Koushiro?

Hiiro almost smiled. Maybe he did have a sense of humor in there somewhere… "I don't believe that you would have been able to do something worse as far as Quatre is concerned."

"Really?" Taichi spoke with almost… astonishment. He had done some pretty bad things as Izzy saw it, but he always decided that he was a good guy, and saved the world, which made up for the fact that he really had done some bad things. Taichi never was one to carry guilt for a long time, unless it concerned his friends. "Oh… so I'm guessing you know what happened, and can enlighten me?" Without receiving confirmation, Taichi went on. "Okay, so I'll tell you the things that I have done, and consider to be the worst things. One, I created a monster out of my partner and myself because of my own cowardice. Two, I have on more than one occasion, left one or more of my friends in a situation that could easily have lead to their deaths, which I could have remedied at an earlier time. And three, I let my little sister lose some of her innocence in the battle for peace. Those are the three things I carry guilt for." Izzy though carefully about it. Taichi needed to put 'Have not expressed my true feelings to the right people' on the list. Hiiro seemed to consider this for a second. Then he spoke.

"I'm not going to say anything. If Quatre is going to tell you, then he will."

"Geez… that kid should meet Ken. They can go all guilt-trippy or something…" Taichi stopped, sensing that this was not the time, nor the person, and the wrong comment might just get him korosu-ed.

He didn't know just how wrong he was becoming…

Minako: Aw… look what I did! I made Quatre all upset!

Quatre: *sniff sniff*

Trowa: …

Quatre: Do you really mean that?

Trowa: …

Quatre: Aw… you make me feel all happier…

Trowa: …

Hiiro: Trowa doesn't talk. You are talking to yourself.

Quatre: Trowa DOES talk, aren't I right?

Trowa: …

Quatre: See?

Trowa: …

Minako: Trowa! I didn't know you had it in you!

Hiiro: Wha?

Duo: I'm just as confused as you are, man. Just smile and nod.

*Duo smiles and nods very well. Hiiro looks like he's plotting something and the nodding makes him look creepier*

Duo: Dude, maybe smiling and nodding isn't your forte. Just… uh… Hn or something!

Hiiro: Hn

Duo: Better!

Minako: Anyway, I'd like to ask you a favor. Could you pretty please review me? I don't tend to get many reviews, and I keep writing regardless, I know, but I seem to be hitting a lot of blank patches lately, and some nice reviews will always get me out of a rut. I have been trying to make amends for my poor reviewing, by writing some long reviews, and this apology.

I know that saying sorry isn't really good enough, but at the moment it is all I can do…

I have written a couple of long reviews, and I was really happy when the authoresses emailed me saying thank-you. That meant a lot to me. Let me do the same for you. Please, review!


	4. Go HIIRO!

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Disclaimer: Me? Own Gundam Wing? You're crazy!

Notes: Apologies. I have been on holiday in Cornwall. I like Cornwall! I took my computer with me so I could write in my spare time, and I had a bit of time, it rained for a while. But I've been surfing, and I've been on the beach, and I've been in the sea, and the sea is always a great inspiration to me! Holidays are good, but I had a killer headache most the time… and I've gotten really ill now… poor Minako! Never mind, I almost always have a headache, and tend to be ill most the time, so I go on my computer to help it! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, I think I do, but I'm not all that sure… oh, and GO HIIRO! Read this and you might get that…

Dedication: This is for all of you who may be reading, or even reviewing! No Internet access for two weeks has caused me to not see if anyone is reviewing. Also, I'd like to dedicate it to Melara-san, because she is a very good authoress and a nice person! So is Kattie-san! You should go and read their fics, Duo is Sick by Melara is very interesting, and Stars Gaze is very good too!

One more thing – I don't have Support Services, and I have heard you can get hit ratings with it. I can't get hit ratings; therefore I don't know how many people are reading this! Please review me, so I can see! Anything welcome, constructive criticism, flames, even 'good' or 'bad' will do! PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW ME PLEASE? *Puppy-dog eyes* Please? My muses are trying to leave me again… meet Myuzu Kyuka, my muse!

Myuzu: Hey, I'm currently trying to leave for the South Pole!

Also, meet my other muse, Kichigaijimita, who messes with my head and tries to write humor. I don't think I'm good at humor. Leita does, which surprises me.

Kichi: I mess with Minako's head! That's why the AN are always long and weird!!!

I have been writing this chapter in the car… so bears with me. I recently edited a bunch of Ground Zero scans as a weird birthday card for Leita, but it's weird… anyway Leita, if you are reading this, I really am working on it! You'll see! I didn't get Leita a present from my holiday, because I couldn't remember if she liked rock or fudge… so, would all of you do me a HUGE favor? I try and write more if you do! The favor is to find Leita Motomiya the author, and review something of hers!

"For reasons beyond me, Gennai is interested in those two, Taichi," Izzy spoke without trying to keep the curiosity out of his tone.

Taichi sighed. One week, it had been one week, and after the odd conversation on the Tuesday, they had gotten nothing more from the two pilots. Hiiro seemed to be silently telling them to get off the subject and leave it alone. Taichi was happy with that after learning that Hiiro did have a gun, and had no qualms about using it. Izzy wasn't worried by the gun at all, and had become convinced that Hiiro wasn't the killing type, even after hearing all they did. That didn't mean he asked questions to Hiiro's face. It was obvious he just wasn't going to talk about it. Now, Gennai wanted the CCs to take them to the Digital World. They weren't about to refuse Gennai, but it still seemed a little weird.

"And what Gennai says goes Izzy, you know that better than I do."

"But it still seems a little strange, don't you agree?"

"Izzy… everything about our lives would _probably_ seem more than a little strange to anyone who isn't us. Think of it as just another edition to the weird things we know."

"Maybe you are right Taichi, but it still seems weird that we now know two people from a completely different timeline, it seems. And I would like to know more-"

"But you are not going to ask any questions, understand? I don't exactly want a bullet anywhere near me at the moment, got it?"

"I still think that gun isn't loaded Taichi, you're just being paranoid."

"And I'm the leader Koushiro, and I say that I checked the gun and it IS loaded. And I probably became close to korosu-ed just to check that one for you, okay? I don't fancy any bullets near you either; you're the brains of the team, got it? I don't want the brains of the team becoming the brains on the wall…" Taichi started giggling in the childish fashion he reserved for jokes he made to Izzy.

"Taichi, you can be so much more than annoying at times."

"I whole-heartedly agree with Izzy, Tai. You need to grow up a bit!" Sora smiled in the doorway, and tried to get a grip on the conversation. "So, what are you guys talking about? All I got was Tai making a lame joke about guns or something. There is a gun somewhere?" Oh yeah. Taichi and Izzy had kept this to themselves.

"Oh, only how I nearly got myself killed by Death-Glare Boy again! That guy can't take a joke."

"Taichi, if you know someone's name, you CAN use it, you know?"

"I know!"

"What did you do this time?"

"I looked at his gun. It's loaded I tell you, loaded!"

"I think you are imagining this gun, you talk about it so much to us."

Izzy's decision to cut in was probably not the best idea. "Oh no Sora, the gun is quite real. Taichi had a lovely time having it pointed at him."

"…Oh."

Taichi made a strange sort of signal to Izzy, and then decided to launch into a proper conversation. "So, you know Glare Boy? He's from another dimension!"

Sora looked at him like she was about to send him to the mental institute when he started defending himself.

"Honestly, Glare Boy is from another dimension! And Gennai wants us to take him and his friend to the Digital World! Gennai won't tell us why though. And we had a conversation last week where he gave us a bunch on interesting hints, and then would tell us what he was talking about! And Izzy keeps asking him question, but I don't think he should because Izzy will get shot because Glare Boy is totally crazy! And there is something going on with that other kid, I mean he is really depressing and wont tell us anything!"

"Calm down Taichi. So those two really are from another dimension?"

Izzy decided that he needed to make up for confirming the authenticity of the gun. "Wherever it is they came from, there is a war going on, and from what I can gather they fight."

"Izzy, what do you mean 'From what I can gather'?"

"Well, they aren't exactly telling."

"Oh… well, maybe we should all go on the Saturday then? I might be able to get something out of them,"

"But Sora, you'll get korosu-ed!" Taichi exclaimed with the Cheshire Cat grin plastered on his features.

"Ah, but Taichi, I'm Sora and I can find things out that other people could never!" The temptation of the statement was all but too much for Sora and she went ^__^V

So, it was Saturday, and the CCs were gathered with the two pilots at the ever-so popular school. (I don't like that school all that much) Naturally, when introducing themselves there was an odd moment between Daisuke and Taichi about who the leader was. It ended with them agreeing that Taichi was the overall leader, but Daisuke was like second in command and leader of the second group. But in true Daisuke-fashion he crossed arms and pouted for a while before deciding that Hiiro was standing too close to Hikari and should be reprimanded. Lets just say that one ended up with Daisuke being lucky and Hiiro not aiming anyway. After the pilots introduced themselves and said… well… nothing about themselves, the decided now was as good a time as any to go to the Digital World (oh you just know this is gonna be fun)

Once they were there, they found themselves in Primary Village (yay! I like Primary Village!) to be greeted by Elecmon, Piximon, and Wizardmon. (For those who don't know, Piximon and Wizardmon are actually supposed to be long dead… but it's DM we're talking, they could be re-formatted!)

"Hello again my friends!" Elecmon quipped merrily, "If you're looking for Gennai I'm sure he's around he somewhere!"

"Uh… thanks Elecmon!" Daisuke replied with the Daisuke-Grin he's so well known for. Piximon was holding up that annoying little stick and poking Hiiro with it, an action sure to cause trouble. Hiiro was just standing there, ignoring, until Piximon started whacking him upside the head with it. Have you ever seen those tension marks on anime? You know, the four corners facing in on each other? Well, Hiiro was slowly getting one of those on his head, and finally after a particularly hard whack, gave Piximon the Death Glare to the nth degree. Piximon wasn't fazed and kept whacking him until Hiiro grabbed the stick with ease and threatened to snap it. Piximon was all about stopping then (smart dude) As an afterthought, Taichi mentioned that Hiiro liked to carry a gun. So Piximon decided he had a reason for hitting Hiiro so much.

"It was a test of strength, stamina, speed, agility, resilience, and I don't know you so I haven't tried yet. What's your name kid?"

Hiiro, with the traditional 'Yui-is-pissed' look, shot back. "Hiiro Yui." There was so little behind it that someone could get a computer to have a more emotion-filled voice. But Yui is capable of that… at times… Wizardmon was busy talking to Kari and Gatomon (catching up I guess) but had that look in his eye that said 'I'm paying attention to something all the more interesting' blatantly. However, just what that was wasn't apparent. So, they went and had a look around, and found a note from Gennai saying he'd meet them at the soup place where they make that lovely Stone Soup. So, having nothing better to do, our rather large group of um… 13 strong went off in search of soup.

Arriving at the soup restaurant, they found a young Gennai sitting at a large table with Ken (yay! Things just get better and better! Where I'm concerned, Ken has a bizarre and twisted version of empathy!) So the pilots had to introduce themselves AGAIN (though everyone is more interested in Hiiro… Cat is just blending into the shadows at the mo) Ken had that lovely rare smile thing going (I love that) and also the 'I know something you don't know' superiority as they approached the conversation.

"Greetings and Salutations my friends. I'm sure you would like to know what the situation at current is, and why we have two new friends. Well, to put it into simple terms, the Digital World is not so much a shadow world to just where the Chosen come from, it is also a Shadow World to just about every dimension. It just so happens that the world the Chosen come from has a direct link with this one. I am what known as a 'Dimensional Guardian' or DG for short. My job is to look after the dimensional portals, control who comes and goes and the like."

"So," Taichi began, "You brought these two straight through here to our world?"

"Quite the contrary Taichi, someone else brought them here."

"But who?"

"Ah, this is where the story gets more interesting. A man came to see me only a day ago, talking to me about the dimensional portals. I don't know how he got here, but I do know for sure he isn't from any other dimension. He asked me if anyone had come from D-1 recently."

"D-1?"

"Dimension-1, the term used for the dimension the pilots come from. Your dimension is D-2, and there are many, many other dimensions as well. There is two more that link to this world, which you know as the Digital World, but is also known as the Digital Plane."

"So what did this guy say?"

"The man I spoke to introduced himself as Loster Clay, and I've no doubt he is a DG much like myself. He asked me about the portals from D-1, and I said yes, two people recently came through. He said that there must be a reason for it, and he'd like to find out, and left."

"Well that sure was interesting!"

"Fascinating… simply fascinating…" Izzy stated in his thoughtful trance-like state. He pulled out his laptop and typed the new information in, and the screen lit up for a while, before returning to the DOS screen from before, for no apparent reason. "AH! This is so annoying! This kind of thing never used to happen! What did you do to my computer?" Izzy spoke to Hiiro with that crazy 'You messed with my computer' look in his eyes. It's safe to say that he's none too happy. Hiiro shrugged, in a definite 'Don't care' way. Knowing that the gun was somewhere, he went for the safer (well, maybe not…) option, and spoke this time to Quatre (who's gone unnoticed for such a long time now) "Are you sure you won't give us those codes? I think we really need them!"

"I'm sure… I'm sure because those codes are complex and hard to crack when surrounded by others. On their own they are fairly simple. Most of the codes for the program are common programming codes and algorithms any novice could work out, and if they did, and we gave them those three codes, you don't know the problems it could possess."

"It's a system to be used for tactical use right? And it feeds information to the brain? Then easily over-exposure could kill, and that would get rid of the problem!"

"You don't understand! If one person has three codes, then many other people do too! It's not difficult, but the codes aren't something most people could work using pen and paper method and be done quick enough. They would use a computer, and a lot of people hack databases for that kind of information. OZ probably has the ZERO by now, and if they knew the protocols they could easily duplicate it, and there aren't many people skilled enough to work all the codes together. The only people who can are against OZ anyway!"

"Wouldn't that problem crop up when writing the program itself anyway? How could you write a program with such complex codes if you weren't using a computer?"

"I told you. It was a mixture of basic program knowledge, some very complex codes and codes from blueprints. I didn't need a computer to write the codes, I did it on paper and programmed it into ZERO. No one is about to try and hack into computer systems on an MS, that's just stupid! I'm telling you I can't give the codes, and there is no way you'll be able to make me! It's bad enough the system exists, I can't let anyone find out how to replicate it!"

"Then why did you build the system in the first place? If no one can use it and you think it's so bad, why in the hell did you create it? Why-"

"That's enough!"

The conversation was cut short by the loud voice of Hiiro. It seemed he was the only other person who truly understood the situation, and Izzy had a good idea, but everyone else seemed fairly in the dark.

"Izumi, just shut up. This has nothing to do with you, with any of you."

"It has everything to do with us now!" Taichi's voice carried the commanding tone he used only in dire situations. "We've told you everything and you should return the favor! It seems we're going to have to work together so we' re going to have to understand each other, and the only way I know how to do that is to talk!"

If Hiiro's current Death-Glare record could be beaten, it was at that moment. Taichi, however, had found himself in his role of leader, sticking up for the members of his team, and unafraid. He didn't get the crest of Courage for nothing. After a short while, Hiiro broke the silence. "There are some things you do not need to know at the moment, if ever. You may have a point, but you don't understand and I don't think any of you could. This is, if anything, the worst time to talk. You need to apologize, now." However, Taichi's role of leader included stubbornness unmatched, and Izzy's was the only thing closest to it at that moment. And Hiiro was getting angry. There was a long silence, which was finally broken by Quatre.

"Hiiro… Koushiro is right, I had no reason to build the ZERO, create the system, and I have to take responsibility for that. It was my fault, mine alone."

"No. This wasn't your fault. You didn't come up with the concept, and you didn't know any better. Do you understand?"

"Then who's fault was it, Hiiro? IN the end it was down to me. I perfected the system, I built ZERO, I destroyed the colonies… it was my fault…"

"No." The exchange was fast becoming confusing for the CCs. There was too much conflicting information now. "No Quatre, you can't keep blaming yourself. You weren't yourself when you even started, and the system was controlling you. You weren't in control of your actions."

"Stop it! Why are you doing this? You act like you're trying to help but why? I tried to kill you! And I would have, but I killed Trowa instead! You should have killed me when you had the chance!"

"No. You have to stop thinking about that now. It's not something you can fix now, you should fix it when you do have the chance and you need to forget about it now, and understand that it wasn't your fault."

"I can't forget it… they won't let me Hiiro, and you shouldn't either. It happened and I can't just say it doesn't matter when it does!"

The restaurant seemed to leave, and then, without any real reason, there they all were, on a beach, where all the colors seemed grayed. Ken and Kari were the first to notice it and said at almost identical times, "Why are we at the Dark Ocean?"

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	5. At last, someone butts in...

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Minako: No one reviewed…

All Else: Nani?

Minako: Three chapters, two weeks, and nobody reviewed… this is a record for me… usually with that amount of time, or with that amount of chapters, I get at least one review. But… no one reviewed.

Ken: Change the summary.

Minako: Will do. Anyhow, will someone please review me? If someone did between now and when I last updated, thank you! If not, please do! I need your feedback, please!  
Ken: She's not joking. Kyuka and Kichi keep trying to leave

Quatre: I have a very serious question for you. I read some of your previous works, and also what you originally planned for some other things that never finished, and I'm a little worried about my health…

Minako: *Irks* It's okay… when you mean that, you refer to main character death, right?

Quatre: Um… yeah, that's right!

Minako: Have a sift through the plans, Cat! You don't die! Just come very close two or three times every story! I especially like how you beat the bad dude at the end… and then Tro's reaction… and the bad dude, what he said about you… I like my end!

Quatre: *Goes through plans* Um… I like your plans, actually!

Trowa: *Has a look through* … I like these plans… and what's with your humor complex? 

Minako: Oh right… Gundam Pilots built Wing Zero Custom… with the help of telepathy and past experience!

Quatre: …Meanie!

Trowa: …Meanie

Minako: C'mon, you guys won!!!

Disclaimer: DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT THE PLOT THE CONCEPT AND LOSTER CLAY!

Dedication: Hey, this one is for Leita my best friend!

The Dark Ocean. The place in the Digital World, or rather, Digital Plane, where things can go nothing short of wrong. The place people don't want to remember and don't want to go back to. And the place they were standing at that moment.

But it didn't make any sense. In any other situation, only one or two people would come here, but here they all were, including Gennai. There must be something wrong, of course, that's the only option… right?

The Dark Ocean is a place of anything negative, where the air is oppressive simply because you believe it to be so. At this moment the whispers that told them of another way seeped around, digging at insecurities like fine mist-rain. If you stand out in it for only a little while it seems nothing but a slight layer of moisture on your clothes. But too long and that innocent-seeming mist has clung to you tightly and you feel deeply cold. This is what the ocean does to you. A little while is fine, but over-exposure makes people react in a different way.

Of course, in some situations, there are people who pay intent attention to every detail that crops up. And there are people who are beyond that, for one reason or another, and won't notice what's truly happening. While some pondered as to what phenomena this was, others as sensible questions to the one who may be able to answer.

"Gennai, why have all of us come to the Dark Ocean?"

The look on Gennai's face almost screamed 'I'm PRETTY sure…' and so he spoke. "The Dark Ocean in this plane is like a bank, maybe, or maybe something else. Whatever it is, it is a place that stores negative emotions. The Digital Plane can only take so much, you see, and if anyone has an intense amount of a negative feeling they would be sent here. As for why all of us are here, I can't only guess…"

Ken seemed also to have something on his mind. "This place has only ever called certain people in certain situations to it, and if anyone is so lucky to be around at the wrong time they may or may not be brought along. But what I don't understand is why we can all hear the same thing… if you come here, and they were calling for you, all sorts of inner demons come out, so to speak, and have their say. But it is all voices in your head, you can't hear what is getting to other people, only yourself…"

Hiiro, Izzy, and Taichi seemed to have begun their dispute after noting that the surroundings had changed. Some people never change. Taichi and Izzy were sticking by the fact they had the right to ask questions, and Hiiro stuck by the fact they didn't. All in all, something they weren't likely to agree to disagree about. Sora, being resident peacemaker, decided the conversation had gone far enough.

"Listen to the three of you! If you want to talk about something could you at least be thoughtful to the rest of us who are trying to concentrate the situation? And you shouldn't even be arguing when you can negotiate!"

"Well who do you think is right Sora?" Taichi asked, not keeping the odd tone he used in leader-mode out of his voice.

"Taichi… you are all right, for different reasons."

"We can't all be right Sora, either one of us is or one of us isn't!"

"Quiet! Now Taichi, Koushiro, you do have a point. The current situation is not one where we can't tell anyone anything. You should be able to ask questions. But, Hiiro, you are right as well. There are certain limits to things people might want to talk about and you two should respect that. Koushiro, I think you should have taken no for an answer before…"

Izzy kept his voice low, so only the four of them could hear now. Not that anyone else was interested in the conversation really. "Sora, you know me too well, and you know sometimes I can have a lack of tack. Things did get a bit out of hand and I'm mainly to blame, I shouldn't of raised my voice and drawn attention to the subject when there are subtler ways to say things. But I still maintain that I have every right to ask the both of you questions about what's happening and what you are doing in your own homeland."

"Izzy… if you had paid more attention you would have noticed that you got a lot of answers, and you were being tactless. But Hiiro, you should have been more willing to answer questions and state what you weren't comfortable about talking about, and you should be more careful with your gun and your tone. Now, Hiiro, is there anything in your defense you'd like to say?" Sora knew for sure he would have something to say, something that might even be important. She had a way of getting people to open up, even if only a little. She had realized that Hiiro was probably going to be as difficult as opening an oyster shell if you've never done it before (trust me, it's real hard) But, she was not going to give up on him. Not yet, anyway. And, sure as rain, Hiiro did have something important to say.

"If there is any questions you should ask me, and only me. This situation is hard enough as it is for any of us, but at the moment Quatre is in an extremely fragile state and should be left alone, do you understand?"

Izzy still persevered. "What happened? I can't help but get the feeling you're trying to cover something up, and I just want to know what it is and I'll back off. Will you answer my questions?"

There was an extremely long moment of silence, and then Hiiro gave a brief nod of approval. "There is still some things I cannot or will not answer, clear?"

"Perfectly. First off, what exactly is OZ?"

"OZ is an organization that is trying to control everything on Earth and the Colonies. There was a war going on between Earth and the Colonies, in which five of us were sent to Earth to destroy OZ bases and such. But, soon OZ took over the Alliance, who were oppressing the Colonies, which led to the war in the first place, and started to side with the colonies. And so it seems that we are the bad guys at the moment, when really and truly all this is some sister scheme from Romafeller, the organization behind OZ."

Izzy blinked a little, not expecting so much information. He didn't need to ask what Colonies were, he could gather that much (as can the rest of us) And so he continued on the lines of questioning that seemed fairly safe, until he came to the ones he had really been leading up to. "What exactly is the situation that you keep referring to? Does it have something to do with the system?"

With a small sigh that seemed to speak more words than anything else he'd mentioned, even though at some points he had gone into good detail. It seemed that this was a bad answer. Then Izzy traced in his mind the conversations lines before they had ended up at the Dark Ocean, and some of the strange things Quatre had mentioned. All he had to do was ask a couple of questions, and he, being the almighty Koushiro, would piece together the rest and ask little questions to fill in the gap. "Hiiro… what exactly is ZERO?"

"ZERO is the ultimate Gundam. The Doctors made the blueprints a long time ago and based the other Gundams designs on it. However, as part of the MS was the ZERO system, which you do know a little about. It wouldn't seem like much to anyone, just an extra piece of programming for a completely different kind of MS."

(AN: I actually didn't know for a long time that Q built ZERO… I figured he stole it or the doctors just gave it to him, but I realize now that would have been too simple, and Q wouldn't be able to blame himself nearly as much)

"And Quatre built this machine?"

"He didn't have his Gundam at the time, and built the ZERO instead, from what I can gather. But he didn't know what the system would do, and was unprepared for all the information. The system, which seems to be uncontrollable, makes you see everyone as an enemy. So, when the colonies tried to shoot the MS, Quatre destroyed them."

"All of them?" From what Izzy could gather there were thousands of colonies.

"No, about three I think. Myself and another pilot, Trowa, were sent to stop Quatre by OZ."

"The enemy?" Taichi cut in.

"Trowa was working undercover, and I was forced to pilot, as they were using this as an opportunity to test out new MS they had created."

"But this ZERO was supposed to be the ultimate… so how are you still alive?"

Hiiro's eyes seemed to darken considerably, as if remembering something tragic. Something that had managed to crack through the heavy shields of the stoic boy. Now Sora was listening.

"Well, we fought. I don't understand, even now when we have talked about it, why Quatre only went for me and ignored Trowa. But, at the one moment I probably should have died, Trowa was there and took the shot instead. He said some tings, and somehow managed to snap him out of the system."

"And now he's dead?"

"No, just waiting for the right time, somewhere."

TO BE CONTINUED

Note: Hiiro is nice! If you haven't noticed I've been putting these discrete things that tell you that Hiiro is worried. But as for why… like why he's sticking up for Q, and why he's making everyone leave him alone… is something only I know. However, I think Quatre has a habit of bringing out what's best in people. After all, Trowa who's most famous line is '…' spoke for 90 seconds when he was about to get blown up! And because Quatre is very different from everyone else they get all brig-brotherly… but those are my theories. Sorry for the short chapter. It's about 1:15am when I finish this, and I started about 10pm the day before… because I don't get to go on the net 'cept at weekends, I'll have more time to write a longer chapter next time.

**Next time, we've got some more of Minako's theories on people, and also, the effect of the Dark Ocean mixed with residual ZERO waves!**


	6. Go HIIRO! AGAIN!

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Dedication: Hey, this one is for you, Card Mistress, my first reviewer!

Now, I was reading over some of my old stuff earlier, and I noticed that in Crossing Paths I mentioned a line from a Leonard Cohen song, and thinking of it now, the line was used twice, but reversed. The song is called 'Story of Isaac' and after thinking about it, I realized the verse with the line I was thinking of in it reminded me of Hiiro. Make your own decision –

'And if you call me brother now

Forgive me if I inquire

'Just according to whose plan?'

When it all comes down to dust, I will kill you if I must, I will help you if I can

When it all comes down to dust, I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can

Have mercy on our uniform

Man of peace or man of war

The peacock spreads his fan'

It made me think of Hiiro's conflicting interests, as the fact that he does worry about people, but in the end he'll do what the mission says, because he's a soldier and isn't supposed to be attached to anyone. And the first three lines, I suppose, is Hiiro not wanting to see past mission perimeters, so not really understanding if someone cared about him. As for the last three lines, well, maybe that's him asking for forgiveness because he doesn't understand a concept of family beyond blood relatives. Or, maybe just maybe I'm beginning to associate all songs to my fanfictions… and maybe I'm reading too much into the lyrics in my attempt to place them to Hii-chan. Oh yeah, and I got me two new manga! I got Utena and Ceres! And I sent Bebop manga to Leita!

Disclaimer: I get the feeling that you guys know what I do own, and can make assumptions at what I don't from that. Digimon belongs to TOEI Animation, FOXKids, and BANDAI. Gundam Wing belongs to SUNRISE, Cartoon Network, and Sotsu Agency. No suing.

(AN: Minako has hit that 'Can't Start This' path again)

The company looked at Hiiro in considerable shock.

"But if the dude is alive, and you know it, then why not just say that outright?" Taichi asked, not trying to mask his confusion.

Izzy, attentive as ever, quickly assessed the decision against his personal view of Hiiro, and it matched up. "It is important information that you are saving to tactical reasons, I'm guessing. It is obvious to assume that this person does not have any importance for yourself. And from what I can guess it would be beyond mission perimeters to gather information when you won't be using it yourself. It also seems that if someone's emotional welfare does not interfere with missions it would not matter for you. But still, you got this information, and it is also obvious to assume that the information is for Quatre, though his current state would not interfere with missions. So, why?"

Taichi felt the need to lighten the mood. "Izzy, you should never assume anything. It makes an ass of you an me!"

"But not of him?"

"Nope! Because he's too smart and for all we know he has ulterior motives. The fact of the matter is, you make it seem so easy for someone to not be affected by emotional situations. It may not affect any mission directly, but in a round-a-bout way, for some people, it would affect everything. I don't know if you saw how guilty Cat made himself when you wouldn't shut about the system or whatever, but I sure did."

The slight smirk on Hiiro's face didn't say anything to anyone, but Sora saw that he had an explanation. Whether or not he would say anything about it was beyond the point. He had an explanation.

"Hiiro, what's the explanation then?"

Hiiro looked at her with an expression something akin to 'You figured me out then.'

"Simple. Everything affects everything, and emotional welfare affects physical health. What I know can be used effectively in the right situation." Hiiro turned his back on them and began to walk away. While they began to process the information, Hiiro stopped and looked over his shoulder. "But maybe, just maybe, you could consider the possibility that I might actually care?"

Kari shivered as she noticed that some people had become so wrapped up in conversation they were able to ignore the terrible cold, or hear the whispers that spoke out to all fears deep inside. How they could do it she couldn't understand, for the negativity of this place held her firmly in it's grasp. It had before, and still did, even now. For a brief moment she thought about it. _Isn't it obvious that it's only you and Ken who can be so affected by this place? A little obvious, wouldn't you say?_ But unlike most thoughts, this one didn't bear her own voice; more the voice of one of the demons that drifted around her. But, it was right. Only she and Ken were affected so badly, and thus only her and Ken needed to get out, and fast. But there isn't a way out, you just leave when you leave. She pushed the dark thoughts away, however hard that was, and attempted to talk to Ken. It was then she realized she had walked away from her original position absently, and was now standing near the softly breaking water. _Who thought that a place I know to be so dark can seems so… what would be the words?_ She found them spoken aloud, and not by herself.

"It's beautiful…" it was a soft whisper, and she was sure she was the only one to hear it. "But… I know that it's wrong…"

Kari didn't bother to see who she was talking to. All the senses were blurred, and she never could tell who was speaking when people whisper. "How do you know it's wrong though? Could be the most right place in the world… or at least if could if you hadn't been before…"

"It just feels wrong."

_No one would really be able to tell this place it wrong, without being told. The name could say it all, but Dark isn't necessarily wrong. This place though… it does just seem too wrong. But everyone has been told that, so they would never view this place as beautiful. So why don't you just take a look at who it is you're talking to?_

Kari followed her thoughts with no question. She turned and faced Quatre, who looked far away.

"You've never been here, so how would know that it's wrong?" Kari's thoughts seemed to come in clearer, now she had something to concentrate on.

"It's… too much to be right. This place is alive…"

Kari nodded slowly and turned her gaze out to sea again. "Everything here is not what it seems… this place is alive, in that it is where the very emotions of people are gathered." The cold seemed to be tugging at her, trying to make her remember it was still there; the voices spoke less in whispers, trying to gain her attention. But she could ignore them, at least a little. She watched Quatre blankly, and sat when he did, as he began to trace soft circles in the gray sand. She felt the need to say something, anything, to break the far too silent silence (if that made any sense) regardless of whether or not it made any sense.

"I'm cold," she said quietly, "It makes me feel cold to be here, a little… but, it's not as cold as it used to be. No one else seems cold, they don't even seem bothered…" The spiral in the sand abruptly stopped, and Quatre looked at Kari. "You're cold?"

"Yeah… but then, I'm always cold when I come here, because I guess I come here far too much. I don't mean to though, I just keep ending up here… but are you cold? You haven't been here before, so you might be… but then, most of the others haven't been here before either…" Kari laid her hand on his, and drew back quickly. "You're freezing… are you alright?"

"I'm fine, just fine…"

_That's so weird, I'm not so cold anymore… and those voices, they've gone… everything has cleared up. It's like… the effects are gone…_ She turned to Quatre, and noted that his eyes seemed different in color. No longer were they the darkened blue-green of only half an hour ago, but more a deep shade of gray. And now he seemed much more distant, and possibly more cold. _Well, that really is strange…_ she watched half-heartedly as Gennai, Ken, and Hiiro came toward them.

Hiiro thought over and over what he has said to the other three. Just what had he meant when he told them he might care? He was a soldiers, and soldiers don't care about anything except the mission. _I did it to throw them off track, that's why. They needed to be thrown off, their suspicions were too close… so why am I questioning myself about it when I know the truth?_ He was walking towards Quatre and the Hikari girl, but he was unsure as to exactly why. There were the other two people, the ones he hadn't been introduced to, following him, and he didn't know why. _Oh well, let them do what they want, they don't concern you, _was his line of thought. But something struck him. _Something is wrong here._ Hiiro didn't know why he knew that, but he did know that when he thought something was wrong, it generally is. He didn't take the time to notice his pace instinctively quicken, and before he knew it, he was where he wanted to be. Without thinking he voice two simple words.

"What's wrong?"

Kari looked up at him with a look that said 'Something?'

The winds seemed to pick up a little, but it wasn't cold. He looked from Hikari to Quatre, who was staring at him blankly. Hiiro noted that his eyes had taken on the deadened gray tone they seemed to do all too often, but his systems went on alert as he noticed the barely visible golden tint. He asked the question again, and recognized the urgent and panicked tone it had taken on.

"What's wrong?"

He was close to repeating the question a third time and grabbed Quatre's arm, to be met by a slight tap on him own. And then it hit him like a wall of bricks at the speed of sound.

His senses seemed to fade into whatever this was. He felt cold, terribly cold, a feeling he felt he'd never be able to shake off. His ears roared as a cacophony of loud voices speaking at once assaulted him. His vision blurred as everything seemed to turn dark. He pulled back, but still, it was there. His breathing hitched as he was bombarded by emotions, all negative. And then, among thousands of voices, and against the darkness, he heard the water slosh against the shore, and saw it shine brightly against the darkness, and it seemed at that moment to be the answer to everything.

_Go into the Ocean._

He hadn't said it aloud, found no words to. Instead he walked slowly towards it, as if some part of him still told him that it was wrong. The voices flooded his ears, the darkness his vision, and the emotion returned, but he now knew what he had to do to make it stop. Go into the Ocean.

_Wait! What are you doing?_

Going into the Ocean to make this all go away… wait, this wasn't his own mind speaking. He turned back and saw the large group massed around, speaking to him with words he didn't hear against the mass of voices screaming at him. Their expressions blurred the harder he tried to see, so he gave up, and kept walking.

_Don't go into the Ocean!_

Why not? It was just some water. Good water, water that would take all this away…

_That's where it's all coming from!_

It's a body of water. Coldness, voices, darkness, emotions… they don't come from the water. Release does.

The first voice practically screamed in his mind.

_GO INTO THE OCEAN! LET ALL OF THIS GO! GET RID OF THE HATE ANGER FEAR SORROW PAIN GUILT… GET AWAY!_

It seemed there was an argument that did not involve him now.

_No! You can't go into the Ocean, it's evil!_

He could barely make out the flash of pink light near him, but then saw he had stopped, inches away from the softly breaking waters of the Ocean, and everything faded as he prepared to step into the cool clam waters and escape…

A feeble tug on his arm was enough to bring him to his senses. He was inches away, from waters that looked no longer welcoming but dangerous. The voices were loud again, but this time it was for all, and he shivered as chill winds blew by. Was this how this place was meant to be? How had it not been like this before then? He felt the small tug on his arm again, and then slip. He looked around and saw everyone staring at him, amazed. He pulled himself away from the Ocean. He knelt besides Quatre, and thanked Hikari for pulling him away. The smaller boy was trembling.

"Are you… are you alright, Quatre?"

He waited for an answer patiently. But he didn't get one he was expecting.

"I'm sorry…"

"No. Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry… I didn't meant to do that to you… I'm sorry…"

"Shh…" Hiiro pulled the smaller boy into an embrace, an action he wasn't quite sure of himself with. He noticed that his shirt seemed to be getting very wet, very fast. He felt a hand on his chest, on his heart, and he felt warm. He listened carefully to hear strained words.

"Hiiro… we are… friends… right?" Hiiro looked into dulled gray eyes which shut after the statement. Quatre was asleep. Hiiro carefully picked him up, and whispered something only he could hear.

"No… more like brothers…"

Hiiro watched silently as the surroundings faded back to the restaurant, and the small smile on the younger pilot's face told him everything. Hiiro knew that he heard.

And that made him feel all the better.

TO BE CONTINUED

Okay… that was odd. Can anyone say AWW the way I'm thinking? Never knew Hiiro had it in him… the explanation is, because there is no wars going on in this dimension, no mission, and no one he'd be showing himself up to, Hiiro feels a lot freer to express how he feels. He tells Quatre to stop apologizing, subconsciously understanding that Quatre was trying to keep the oppressive feelings of the Dark Ocean, and didn't mean to transmit them to Hiiro. Quatre specifically asks Hiiro if they are friends, regardless of whether he knew the answer, because he wanted Hiiro to say it, because he knew Hiiro would feel better having a least one friend. Till next time!


	7. Why does someone alway know?

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Minako: Hey there! I'm bored. It's Saturday morning… WAAAAAAAY morning. I mean, for me, it's Saturday Midnight morning, but I can't sleep, and won't until I'm done!

Hiiro: Lack of sleep is bad for your health

Minako: You don't say… well, every morning I've woken up this week I've had bloodshot eyes, and I'm starting to get circles… methinks I'm ill

Leita: Ya told me you had the Chicken Pox

Minako: I might have had the Chicken Pox, that's right. You know, Chicken Pox can scar me… darn! I'm gonna have little Chicken Scars on my back! Anyway, maybe you've been wondering about how OOC Hiiro is acting? And in fact, will be acting? It wont last long. Wait till the next few chapters… *snickers* Oh yeah, and this isn't Hiiro's dream he's having, or anyone else's for that matter, it's just… D/O residue… as for Keika, she acts like Rel-chan, wouldn't you say? And I'd like to say a BIG thankyou to all of you who reviewed! It means so much to me! I haven't read them yet, I'm only allowed on the internet at the weekend, and it's only just coming up for 1am on Saturday morning, so I haven't read them yet, but I will, and THANKYOU OH SO VERY MUCH YOU'LL MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT NOT SLEEPING! Anyone think the last chapter was cute at the end? I did!

Leita: That's because you can't write angst too well, and you can't do sap, so there was an odd moment in between…

Minako: Too right it was odd! Leita, did you see the look on Hiiro's face when we did that?

Hiiro: *Flashes to end of last chapter* O_^*

Minako: *Back to now* Creepy… winking, googly-eying, and sweatdropping at the same time! How about the rest?

*Back to last chapter*

Minako & Quatre: ;_;

Leita: ^_^*****

*Back to now*

Minako: On with the chapter!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't have enough money to claim ownership of either anime in this story in a courtroom. I don't wanna get sued, my money is reserved for manga and DVD!

Dedication: Hey reviewers? The ones with no names because I can't edit? This is for you! This is also Leita, kind enough to let me watch her GUNDAM WING videos with her! You rule!

(AN: I can't really start this one off too well)

Though Hiiro hadn't mentioned exactly why he was compelled to walk into the Ocean, Kari knew all too well that the fact there had been hardly any activity from the area, followed by none, followed by everything, had to have something to do with the two newcomers. She also didn't like how her contact with Hiiro made her feel a fleeting glimpse of what he had been going through. It felt like the powers of the Ocean concentrated into one spot, and it almost overwhelmed her. But she knew too well that Hiiro would not tell her, or anyone for that matter, what was happening willingly, even if he could comprehend it. She was usually so good at this kind of thing, but right now she had hit some kind of wall, the kind reinforced with steel. That had her slightly annoyed to say the least. Oh well, she could try giving Mr. Personality a try.

Now that they were back in the restaurant, they thought carefully about what to do. Even Gennai, supposedly the great guardian of dimensions, was at a loss for what had happened. But, the look on Hiiro's face surprised her and told her he did. The only thing that could of surprised her more was if he asked if he could explain. And that's exactly what he did next.

"What I was doing was not following my own actions, but the pull of the… power of that place. I was not receiving what a 'normal dose' would have been, but all of it concentrated. Basically this is because the oppressive atmosphere and the power was being deflected, and concentrated. I was just unlucky enough to come into contact with the concentration, but after being brought out of the trace-like state, the place became about as normal as it gets."

The slight glimmer in Hiiro's eyes that went unnoticed by the rest told her that there was more to this, such as WHY there was a concentration, exactly HOW the powers were blocked. There was also something that even Izzy, the least skilled of all people at detecting emotions, could see, and that was anxiousness, worry, and guilt. It seemed to her that this was all new for him in a way, like riding a bicycle for the first time, and just adjusting to it. Or maybe… maybe it was more like doing something you've always been good at, but haven't done for years; shaky at first, but gradually falling back into your own reactions. It seemed strange though, like it was supposed to be long gone. His explanation finished, Hiiro had once again turned his attention to Quatre, who was sleeping. _I wonder why he apologized, and then fell asleep? It's more like when people sleep because they've run out of energy… hey…_

*~*~*

_"I'm cold," she said quietly, "It makes me feel cold to be here, a little… but, it's not as cold as it used to be. No one else seems cold, they don't even seem bothered…" The spiral in the sand abruptly stopped, and Quatre looked at Kari. "You're cold?"_

_"Yeah… but then, I'm always cold when I come here, because I guess I come here far too much. I don't mean to though, I just keep ending up here… but are you cold? You haven't been here before, so you might be… but then, most of the others haven't been here before either…" Kari laid her hand on his, and drew back quickly. "You're freezing… are you alright?"_

*~*~*

_That's right…_ Kari thought, slowly bringing pieces together. _I told Quatre I was cold… and then I asked him if he was… and then I touched his hand… and then it was all gone, everything! So that means that-_

"He did it!" Kari was talking before she noticed at all. The group looked at her with a collective look that said 'Wha-?' and she smiled knowingly. "Hiiro, you came to speak to us, and you thought that something was wrong! Then you touched Quatre's arm and felt the concentration, right? But, that was because you felt it _through_ him, because for some reason someone or something managed to concentrate all the Oceans' power on him somehow, and he knew you got all of it from him because he was apologizing!"

The rest looked at her like she was crazy, but something in Hiiro's eyes told her that he was nodding. She smiled, as if knowing it was some kind of secret. "But, of course, that would be impossible, because no one can concentrate all of the Oceans' power onto one person, and of course no one can pass emotions on to other people. Right Hiiro?" Hiiro nodded a lot more visibly this time "And as for apologizing… I guess that Quatre just tends to apologize for everything like it's his fault."

Taichi smiled, totally missing the cover-up. "Bearing the weight of the world on ones shoulders? Sounds like someone I know, Sora!" Some kind of private joke ensued as the others spread themselves around the restaurant. Kari went to talk to Hiiro, who was sitting with the sleeping Quatre again.

"Hiiro… I was right, somewhere along the line, wasn't I?"

Hiiro smirked like he was having his own private joke, and spoke. "I knew someone would see the pieces and put them together," his smirk grew wider, "but I didn't think I'd see such a good cover-up. Nor did I think anyone would be as close as you were."

"So, Hiiro, what exactly happened? You act like you know…"

"I do. Touch Quatre's hand."

"Wha-?"

"It'll be a lot easier to explain if you do."

Kari reluctantly locked fingers with the blonde boy and felt something fleeing across her mindscape, at which she let go. Lights seemed to flicker across her eyes, the same way they do if you stare at a lamp and then look back.

"Wha-?"

"Simple really. Have you ever heard of something called empathy?" Kari shook her head absently, "Well, it's when you can tell what other people are feeling. For any normal person it would just give them higher awareness of what is happening. But, Quatre is far from normal."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, instead of the emotions of others being like background noise, always there, it's… I dunno, sometimes there and sometimes not. You'd have to ask Quatre about that, I don't really understand that well. Anyway, from what I can tell, it sometimes makes him feel exactly what someone else is feeling, sometimes even at a higher degree, who knows why."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"We were all brought to that place, the Dark Ocean, and the oppressive atmosphere was something all of you dreaded. Quatre knew this, and through guilt, decided to harbor all the effects for everyone. There was 15 of us, and I'm guessing that place likes to give everyone an equal amount of its power, at the same magnitude, every time. He was trying to protect the rest of us from that place, but it meant that physical contact would result in passing on everything to whoever made contact."

"And that's what happened to you… but why didn't it send him into the same trance it did you?"

"ZERO." Though only hearing about it for one day, Kari was beginning to hate this word without much reason. "The power from the Ocean was being kept at bay by the residual effects of the system."

"Did you use the system at any point?"

"OZ, the enemy, used me as a test pilot for Wing ZERO, so of course I used the system."

"So why did you go into a trance state so quickly? Surely the residual effects would be with you as well,"

"I explained to you about empathy because I knew we would be coming to this. When Quatre used the system, it kept his empathy at bay; using the Wing ZERO Quatre destroyed two or three colonies. This would probably total roughly a million casualties. When Quatre was brought out of the system, I suppose that his empathy returned, and he felt the death of those on the colonies he destroyed, mixed with his own pain for destroying Trowa, but the system probably still had some control over him, and now I have figured that unless Quatre were to master the system, any emotional strain could cause a relapse."

"And that would be a very bad thing."

"Indeed. But, you cannot tell anyone else. They should try and figure it out on their own."

*~*~*

Hiiro felt strangely tired when he finally got home again, and opted that sleep would be the best option (unlike me) He was not, however, expecting the strange dream he did have…

…Hiiro found himself in his normal clothes drifting around in the void of space. His mind absently noted that he should be dead because he wasn't wearing a suit, but he ignored that voice. It suddenly felt cold, and he attempted to cover himself a little, only to fin new appendages wrapping around him. There were silver wings, which seemed to fade in and out of existence, but none the less kept the cold of the void away. He watched in fascination as a star exploded in a beautiful lightshow, but the wings seemed to turn dull and slack, and seemed to flicker like a bad transmission, until the faded into the void, but it wasn't cold anymore. He closed his eyes…

…When he opened them again, he was underwater, in clear crystal water. He was reminded briefly of the Ocean, and noted dimly once more that he should be dead, drowned by now, until he noticed the faint gold sphere that surrounded him. He recognized the colour, it seemed that of the glow of the system. There was another bubble, a silver one, and a bubble that was gold, but a different one, also familiar. He left the safety of the 'ZERO bubble' for the other gold one, and found he was drifting to the surface…

…Where suddenly he was standing on a hill, looking over a massive battleground, with a strange sense of calm, as he felt tears streaming down his face. Something had happened, some brave act… he knew what had happened, but could put it into words. He found himself sliding down the hill, towards people he knew. A girl with purple hair he didn't recognize turned to talk to him, and he could hear her loud and clear.

"That was truly brave… now, we return home, I suppose…"

…Now he was surrounded by the same group of people, all celebrating in an odd way, like there was something completely wrong with celebrating when they were. The mind that was not his but was noted that some people were missing, but many were there. He could see the people standing in small alliances, like couples or something, and noticed that two people he knew from the place he was in now were on the stage, and the woman was talking. He couldn't really catch what was being said.

"…I suppose we should have waited until our angel could join us, but unfortunately we don't have nearly as much time as we'd like… everyone is happy, at least some good came from this… but we should be very thankful for small miracles, one did save all our lives, and the lives of everyone else… so lets give a toast, to life!"

The words were chanted, and it was strange, because Hiiro felt as if this was real, as if it were the future almost…

…He was back on that same hill, but somehow knew it was before the other time. He was crying again, but it was against his will, like some great sadness tore at his very soul…

…Back further, and he was talking to Relena. "I know you miss him… but you like me too, don't you? How would that work? Hehe… I kinda like him too… while you were away, we got to know each other a little better…

…Back further, and now standing by a wall, staring at someone he couldn't recognize, who looked at him in shock. "Who… Who are you?"

Hiiro woke up with a jolt.

TO BE CONTINUED

Yes, some of those scenes have relevance… Leita would know… It's 2:42am, I think I'll get some shut-eye… later days!


	8. Chapter 8 always sucks!

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Quatre: Wow Minako, you are working very hard! Two chapters in 24 hours! Since the last one was started Saturday morning, and this one is Afternoon/Evening, to be posted tomorrow, you're doing very well!

Minako: I am, aren't I? Anyway, last time I checked my reviews was just after I posted 6&7, so I'm not too sure if more have reviewed, and I would comment on the reviews, but upon looking for them in TIF I can't find them… I know Card Mistress reviewed twice, and Leita reviewed, but I'm sorry I can't remember the other persons name… but, thankyou nameless person! It was a nice review, and I remember it because it was about my sense of humor… which is odd and comes through a little too much in this, but that's okay… you said it was rare and you think that is what kept you reading, well, thankyou for such a nice comment! Made my day! So did the second review from Card Mistress… Leita, you don't write much my friend

Leita: Course not. I got better things to do rather than review you!

Minako: hehe… thanks…

Hiiro: I'm reading this plan and there is more of this unusual OOC about me. What's with that?

Quatre: Why am I Hiiro's brother?

Minako: What color are Duo's eyes? Or mine for that matter?

Everyone else: Nani?

Minako: More unanswerable questions. Duo's eyes are some variation of cobalt/violet, but mine are blue/green/gray/with a lovely brown slit and slight tint in one eye! My eye color is about as controversial as Quatre's!

Everyone: Nani?

Minako: Well it's true… everyone has their own opinion about it! Of course, I use this to my advantage in this fic… *Evil laughing, but it's not Minako's. Actually, it's none other than-*

Everyone: DOROTHY!

Dorothy: Tee-hee-hee! Hi there! Oh Hiiro you're a knight! Don't you love my eyebrows? *If you've read the manga, and the funnies in the manga, you KNOW this is how Dot acts!*

*Minako has run off with the stories two pilot stars… leaving Dot with Leita*

Leita: Ah… hehe… so… how's life?

Dorothy: *Waves around fencing foil* I wonder what made them leave so quickly…

Leita: *irks, then points at foil with slight worry* The foil?

Dorothy: Oh, this? It's perfectly sharp! Wouldn't want a blunt one, now would we? *Evil Dot Grin*

Trowa: *Enters, sees Dot with foil, Exits*

Leita: Wha-? Come back Trowie!

Trowa: *Off-stage* I don't like the look of that foil… with Dot holding it… will Minako re-write that?

Leita: Um… methinks not… *breaks foil* Lets just hope there aren't more…

Disclaimer: I can't ignore what Dot did with the foil… I can re-write it for no apparent reason, but why do that when there's a REAL reason to… dislike Dorothy other than she's annoying as hell? Obviously, this means I don't own Gundam Wing. I also don't own Digimon, but I do own Keika, Clay, and my concept

Dedication: This one is for all Gundam Fanfic writers, because now GW is nearing the number of Digimon fics! And you KNOW they've been top ranking for ages, dudes! So lets keep it up!

(Minako can only seem to write when she should be sleeping…)

Hiiro woke up with a jolt. He tried to piece together the parts of the strange puzzle, but as soon as the light hit his eyes, it seemed to erase the dream completely. Well, almost completely. He could distinctly remember the feel of being underwater and the bubbles, but he also remembered what he last heard. Someone looking shocked. _"Who… Who are you?"_ He had the distinct urge to shout at that person who obviously seemed to know him really.

"Hiiro Yui, that's who I am. Heartless Bastard, don't you see?" He stopped himself there. _But… I'm not heartless… at least, maybe not here… but that's different, isn't it? There's no mission, and no one I'll be showing myself up to here. Eventually I'll go home and never see these people again. Is that why they're allowed to see a side of me most don't? I wish there was an explanation for all of this…_

Hiiro did the first immediate course of action that Hiiro always takes when facing confusion.

The Laptop.

He started up a medical examination program and typed in his 'symptoms' _Headache, Tiredness, Unusual Behavior._ The program suggested only one option.

'Possible cold or 'flu symptoms. Treatment: rest. Other symptoms: Unusual Behavior. Possible Cause: Change of Surroundings/Circumstances'

Hiiro thought this over, and concluded with something simple. "I don't get sick." The he noticed a flashing icon at the bottom of the toolbar. He clicked on it, and an email program popped up.

'Hi Hiiro

Your laptop left this address on Izzy's so I'm using it. Question; why aren't you in school? Kami knows when you'll receive this email, so just reply whenever. For all I know there might be a good reason!

Taichi!'

Hiiro seemed to stare at the email in a manner that seemed to say he was trying to telepathically communicate with the laptop. The email, however, did not delete itself, and the recognizable icon at the bottom of the screen begged his attention once it was gone. Incoming mail, from a recognized server, but the only recognizable servers were back 'home'. He opened the email, to find it encrypted. A problem for any normal person, but this is Hiiro Yui. It was about as simple as clicking an enter key. Message from Noin?

'01, 04, report status and location ASAP, Noin' That was simple enough a message, so he tried sending one back.

'Status: fine, location: unknown (Odaiba Tokyo, Japan) will return ASAP. Don't try and find us, at present it is impossible and hard to explain, 01, 04'

After sorting that little thing out, Hiiro decided that checking the time would be the right thing to do, considering he'd been asked about his lack of presence at school. The date read 'Monday 11:29am'

_Half Eleven on Monday… this is highly unusual, I should have woken up before. But this means I slept through most of Sunday also. Oh well, might as well get going…_ Hiiro flipped the laptop lid down, and quickly got dressed. He did all this with familiarity to the actions, like he was getting into the same routine any normal person would. Hey, he was even getting sick, and having dreams with no meaning! Maybe he was becoming normal! Then he remembered who he was. Hiiro Yui. Hiiro Yui, who is heartless, and something different from human. Something more or something less, he hadn't yet decided. But then, was it for him to decide. Then setting mind back on track, Hiiro remembered that he was supposed to be going to school. It wasn't a bank holiday, or a training day, or anything of the sort, so why had Quatre failed to wake him? Then he remembered that the blonde was in a similar, if not worse, state as himself. Hiiro found him in a chair fast asleep, ready for school like he meant to go, but fell asleep instead, however weird that sounded. He shook the blonde awake, and turned the laptop back on. The two icons from before were flashing again, as well as the icon for that medical program from before. He clicked it, and it read 'Free upgrade – covers all dimensions!' Hiiro shrugged and clicked the button, and the program loaded quickly. Then again, on Hiiro's wonderful laptop, everything loaded quickly. He clicked the first two icons, knowing they were emails. Noin's read

'Will not proceed matter any further, return to Sanq ASAP, no urgency, Noin.'

The other was from Taichi (you just know he's trying to get shot or something) saying

'Hey again, where are you guys? I KNOW you got the last email, the D-T said so! So, are ya coming or what? Taichi!'

Hiiro sighed, closing them both, but not deleting them. He shut it down again, and stuck it in his bag. Time to go to school.

"Hiiro…? Hey, how long was I asleep?"

"What do you want to hear?"

"That you got up five minutes ago and we're gonna be late if we don't hurry?"

"It's past 11:30. We already are late. Let's go."

"But uh… what are we supposed to say? The alarm clocks didn't work so we slept in for about 4 hours?"

"Something like that."

And so off to school they went. They were lucky enough to get there during break (please don't ask how) and Hiiro managed to enforce the explanation 'We slept in' with a small Death Glare to the secretary. So later that day (not that much later) they went and had lunch with the CCs (well they ARE the only people they know) but Taichi was annoying as ever and wanted to introduce Hiiro to his friend.

"Well, Hiiro, this is my friend, and she's had her eye on you for a while and just got the courage to introduce herself. So anyway, Hiiro, Keika, Keika, Hiiro!"

A sandy-blonde girl with sharp green eyes shook Hiiro's hand incredulously, and Hiiro was reminded of Relena. Something in the back of his mind told him he'd seen her before. And then she spoke.

"So, Hiiro, how are you?"

And Hiiro recognized the voice.

It was the girl in his dream.

TO BE CONTINUED

Bad but necessary. Review!


	9. Hiiro is concerned, and for a good reaso...

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Dedication: This one is for Card Mistress, giggleplex (sorry I couldn't remember your name last time), and Leita Motomiya because you guys review me! Thankyou for telling me that Hiiro's dream wasn't completely stupid, and Leita, some of the scenes you might get because of the plans I gave you!

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Got it?

Taichi: I may have said it before, but you guys HAVE to understand that I like Sora… I just haven't told her yet. No telling. And no dating them, got it?

Hiiro: Hn.

Quatre: I already told you, we're kinda pegged…

Minako: Oh no you're not! *Evil giggling (people can GIGGLE evilly? Oh yeah, Dot)*

Hiiro & Quatre: Nani?

Minako: You heard me! Nothing is ever pegged when it comes to me!

Trowa: Yes it is. I read your plans.

Minako: Shh Tro-kun, angering me could force me to change my mind…

Trowa: …Damn.

Minako: This is where we like to shake things up a little!

Keika: I like the philosophy of music!

Music Teacher: I like to listen to my students perform!

Sora: I like QUATRE!

All: Nani???

Sora: I'm just doing what I'm told!

Trowa: …*Drags Sora away. Looks like he has Hiiro's gun…*

Minako: Tro-kun, what are you doing? *irks after no response* Trowa?

Hiiro: You know he's gonna kill you for that, don't you? 

Minako: *irks some more* Save me Hiiro! No? Keika? No? Music Teacher? No? Sora? NO? MEEP!

Leita: EBEE!

Quatre: Minako, can you fix this? Please?

Minako: Ask Trowa!

Quatre: *now to Trowa* PLEASE? *Gah! The sickeningly cute look! Run!*

Trowa: …Damn!

Quatre: THANK YOU! *Glomps Trowa. Trowa… blushes? NANI???*

Minako: Aw… KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-*cough-cough*

Leita: ^.^*****

Hiiro: *Whispers to you guys, the readers* Get me out of here!

Notes: I'm not kidding! Nothing is ever pegged! HAHAHA! Unfortunately this ISN'T the chapter when things get… decidedly… interesting! This chapter was largely inspired by the very difficult-to-play third movement of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' (That's also what Q played). I have the midi and listened to it and was inspired. Hence the Music Teacher. If you want the midi, tell me and I'll be happy to send it to you. My email address is **m9_minako9@hotmail.com**, or **fuzzball@gundamwing.net** so you could email me, or leave me a review!

Today was Tuesday. Now, at the High School of Odaiba, every week Tuesday was the main PA/PE day. When I say this, I mean that one week the day would be dedicated to PE, as in Sports, and Theory. Since it was the whole day, you could do whichever you chose, as long as you stuck it out. Funnily enough, no one could get out of it. Not surprising, it was a very sport-orientated school. Not many people attended Theory classes. You could probably guess that our Taichi loved these days, being the soccer-freak he is. You might have guessed that Hiiro… liked it, I suppose. But, basketball was his forte. And he was darn good at it! (Sorry, it was the series, and then the Ground Zero manga that did that) Then, then next week, they would have Performing arts sessions. Of course, some people slacked off and did sports instead. But who could blame them. Our Izzy didn't like either of the days. He said that you couldn't really learn anything, as sport involved too much physical activity and arts required… artsy-ness? Izzy didn't really like anything like that. But, our dear pilot friends are only on their second week. So they don't really know yet, do they? They could choose from Music, Art, Dance, and Drama (Hiiro doing ballet… itai…) doing something sport related, and free sessions. So first up, Music!

Keika surveyed the room carefully, taking in each face with recognition. Aha, there was her prey! And spare seats all around! Keika approached the seat closest to her. But, alas, it was quickly taken by another. No matter, there was one directly behind. Nope, someone is already sitting there. How about in front? Too bad, that one is called too. Then, like a shining light, there was one seat right next to her target. She approached it, almost slowly. And then, just like the rest, it was taken. She dropped her head and sighed resignedly. She took the next seat from her perfect one, and for a while glared at The-Guy-Who-Stole-My-Chair-Guy. And then, the bell rang and everyone was seated. The Teacher entered the nicely-sized room. The room was adequate for it's purpose – it could hold about twenty students, and had a piano next to the desk. There was a second adjacent room filled with keyboards and sound-editing computers and the like. All-in-all, perfect for it's purpose. At the sight of the teacher, most of the students produced folders, presumably filled with sheet music, music books, notes, etc. Keika noted not for the first time that some people had cases next to their chairs.

"Good Morning Class, as always it's a pleasure to see you again. Today, as we had discussed last time, we will be talking about music as well as playing, and listening. But first, we must do the register." The teacher was quick about it, and none of the class held her up, eager to begin. She came to the end of the list. "Ah, I see we have two new students. Well I'll have to talk to you later, hmm?" She smiled lightly, and looked over what was probably notes. The cap was off the pen now, and the whiteboard had a simple title. 'What Is Music?'

"So, that's the topic for today, Class. What is Music? So, has anybody got any ideas?"

Hands shot up left and right, all with their own ideas. Only a few hands remained on desks, perhaps unsure of their opinions. The Teacher picked the first person.

"Well, Music is something you listen to!"

"That's very true. Anyone else?"

The next persons answer was just as easy as the first. "Well, Music is something you can make. Like a song."

"Yes, that's true." There were less people with hands this time, but Keika noticed that herself and another were the only ones left. Naturally the Teacher picked the other person.

"Music is something you make so others can listen!"

"That's a very good point! And now, Keika?"

Keika grinned as she pulled her thoughts together quickly, hoping she'd make as much sense saying it as she did thinking it.

"Well, the way I see it, Music is, well, everything."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, every sound anything makes is it's own kind of music. Music is natural, but we can also make music. We make music for other people to listen to, and we make music for other people to play."

"Is that it Keika?"

"Not quite. What I mean to say is, when we crate music, we create it in two ways. The first way is the way absolutely anyone can play it, simply playing the notes. Of course it makes a wonderful noise after practice, but the other way can be so much better. The second way, is to play music with our souls. If you play music and you pour everything into it, it can help people if they listen. When they listen, thy can understand more about you, and how you feel. You can tell who plays with their soul by how the music sounds; it never sounds the same twice."

"And can everyone play like this?"

"Oh no. There really aren't many who play with everything they have. The fact is, people who play with their everything, are passionate people. And passionate people always have issues."

"Why do you say that?"

"Anyone who has enough emotion to play with passion is not a happy person."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"Music is something we can play to show people how we feel. And if we listen well enough, we can, perhaps, feel what they do, or at least a ratio of it."

The Class stayed silent, contemplating what Keika has said. She smiled slightly, happy with the fact she'd seemed to throw so many people off.

"Those are all very good points. And this is a music calls, we are not only here to learn how to play instruments, but to learn how to listen. Music is a way of speaking, and if we can't listen to others too, it's a lost talent. So, who would like to play something for us first today?"

It turned out that from 20 students, about ten of them could actually play an instrument. The other half of the class was still learning. So, after Keika (who's name was previously at the bottom of the register) finished playing, there was quite a lot of time left. So the Teacher turned on the two newbies.

"So, do either of you play anything?" Keika quickly noted that Chair-Stealing-Guy was new. The object of her attention shrugged nonchalantly, possibly indicating he had no intention to learn. The other guy, who'd she'd been sitting next to for the whole time, and had just been Glaring Daggers to rival the object of her affection, apparently DID play something, but Keika didn't pay enough attention to what. She did, however, follow a couple of others to the piano to watch the kid play. Hiiro, the oh-so-wonderful guy she'd set her eye on, was there before anyone saw him get out of the chair. Keika barely noted his lips moving, saying something that she couldn't hear, even at her proximity. The other must have said something back, as Hiiro stepped back, but to the most observant of people, it would have been hard to note the slight look of concern that glinted in his eyes. Concern? For what?

*~*~*

Hiiro watched carefully as Quatre tinkered half-heartedly with the keys of the piano, as the Teacher spoke.

"So, what are you going to play?"

"Oh… um, this." Quatre handed the Teacher sheets of music, and the Teacher looked at the title as her eye twitched slightly. "Is that okay?" The Teacher nodded, but still had a vaguely stunned look on her face. Hiiro started wonder what was so strange about the sheet music. She tried to hand it back, but was refuted.

"Don't you need the sheet music?"

"No."

And so the Teacher looked a tiny bit paler than usual. Hiiro watched as someone took the sheets and got a very odd look. Hiiro quickly took the sheets, and all he saw was some kind of blotchy mess on the pages. Now, we all know our Hiiro has many talents, and being able to read music a bit was one of them, but this didn't look like music to him. It looked like an ink spill. (I haven't seen the sheet myself, but I'm sure that's all I'd see. I can't read music) He rifled through the seemingly many pages, and noticed some bits he understood since they weren't so… cluttered? He realized that he probably could have looked at the title, but didn't feel the need. He felt someone come near him, and quickly saw that it was Keika, the girl who had been hanging on to him yesterday. She smiled at the fact he noted her, and Hiiro briefly wondered what was going on in her head. He didn't smile back. It wasn't his style.

"So Hiiro," she began with her eyes glinting dangerously, "How are you today?"

"My condition is acceptable."

The glint lessened a little, and Hiiro knew more of this behavior would dent anyone who hadn't spent enough time with him. But then he noticed that there was now a look of unfaltering determination in her eyes, and she smiled again. "So, what is your friend going to play that has the Teacher and Dien so googly?"

_Googly? What does she mean, googly? Is that even a word?_

Hiiro mentally shrugged and showed her the first sheet. "This music looks like a mess," he commented dryly. Keika simply smiled more. She was reminding him slightly of Relena now. Then she looked at the sheet and her face fell a little.

"This isn't a mess, this is scary! Look at it! This is the kind of thing you have to play with about five extra arms! I think your friend is bluffing!" She looked like she was about to rant some more, but instead he found her trying to follow the sheet as the music began. After about a minute she gave up and sighed dramatically. Hiiro ignored her and listened as what could have been something obtrusive and angry was turned pained and morose. Perhaps he was the only one who could hear it this way. Perhaps everyone was busy trying to catch the individual components that they missed the whole. And in a way, he was happy if they did. Sometimes NOT understanding was the best way. In the minutes that passed Hiiro felt the music painted a painfully clear picture of how his friend was. And yet, in this place no one had the ears to hear nor the eyes to see what he did. However, when he faced Keika once more, the odd light in her eyes had left as her mouth hung slightly open. Was she hearing this too?

Abruptly Hiiro was forced from his thoughts as the piece abruptly ended, and a small bang resonated in the silence that followed afterwards. He walked slowly to the piano, which he noted he had moved some distance from since. He also noted that Keika was following, while everyone else remained seemingly frozen.

"Quatre," he whispered, "Quatre, are you okay?" The small shake he got was response enough.

*~*~* 

Keika had followed Hiiro to the small blond playing the piano in a way she'd never heard. It all seemed too clear to her, some kind of lying truth or a truthful lie. She didn't really hear what Hiiro had said, but it didn't matter.

"Do you want to come to the nurses office?" she asked, carefully concealing the fact she was at least a little concerned. An expert and hiding how she felt, she didn't expect the most observant of observers to know.

"…Yeah,"

Keika looked to the Teacher, who nodded, still in the stunned silence that had taken everyone by hold. She watched as Quatre stood up and left the room, followed closely by Hiiro and herself. She wasn't even sure why she was following, and was surely unnoticed by Hiiro. At any other time she might have been peeved, but she wasn't thinking of that now. Now, she cast her mind back to the music that seemed to tell her something. But for the life of her she couldn't figure it out. Perhaps there was more to this than met the eye? She noticed her steps gaining rapider, while Hiiro seemed to fall back. When they reached the office Quatre kept walking, and she was sure Hiiro would have too. Obviously they didn't know where everything was yet. She did the only thing that came to mind and dragged Quatre back a bit. But when she did she got a feeling like an electric shock as her eyes widened slightly. But she didn't let anyone know. _Static Keika, static. Don't be stupid._

The nurse was certainly surprised to see people she didn't know.

"Oh you certainly don't look well dear! Come, come, sit down! I think you have a fever…"

The nurse wasn't wrong. Quatre wasn't looking well at all, instead he looked small and pale, eyes filmed by fatigue, pain, and fear. The nurse left shortly, for reasons undisclosed. Keika leant on the door, very sure she was unnoticed. Hiiro seemed to her to be something akin to angry.

"You haven't been eating or sleeping. Why?"

"Why do you think?"

Keika wanted to know what it was Hiiro was supposed to think. It seemed interesting enough.

"Since we got to Sanq?"

"…Yeah."

Keika noticed that for some reason she could tell Hiiro was supposed to be carefully considering something. She could tell there was something important that he knew, and wasn't sure about saying until now. At this moment, she could see his uncertainty gone. Before she had a chance to think about anything Hiiro blurted something that made no sense, and at the same time, lots.

"Trowa isn't dead."

Quatre's eyes seemed to sparkle in an unseen light, and gave something that could barely be counted as a smile.

"Oh."

TO BE CONTINUED

Okay, quickly – I know (at least, I HOPE) that there is more that three people reading this. Card Mistress has kept on reviewing, as has Leita, but where are the rest of you? Let these two have a break from being my review muses. And to anyone who is wondering, yes, it did take me a whole week to write one chapter. SO, review so I may be inspired! PLEASE!


	10. Bad ZERO, bad!

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Thank you four your reviews of the last chapter. You guys make me happy! For all y'all, this chapter only got done because Leita asked me when the next chapter would be out. I said 'Probably Sunday'. This was on Saturday. I hadn't written anything on Saturday. It's first thing Sunday (I mean around midnight) You should all thank Leita for simply asking when. That little question motivated me, for it made me feel I had an obligation to fill. This is where I screw with the plot a little, starting with a library that serves tea… and the thing about shock is true. My mum told me so! So, all of you thank Leita now! *glomps Leita, who is happy because I told her where to get Velvet Underworld mp3. You know, the Weiss opening. We both love it at the moment*

So, at the moment, this one is for Leita for motivating me and making me read Hearts Desire, this is for Card Mistress who just keeps on reviewing (you're so very nice to me! THANKYOU!) And also for another reviewer called Rocky who made nice observations about Hiiro (THANKYOU!) And for the site that supplied me with the Weiss theme coz that inspired me too (I'm ordering the first video today) and also for the third reviewer I can't remember the name of (sorry, but it was short) and also for my good friend Katoru who has just turned up on the fanfiction writing scene. Go read her story, Untitled And Anonymous. I beta'd it, and it's cool! Go, go on then! Oh wait, read this first! *grins, and glomps all readers who I am grateful for, and glomps all reviewers who I am even more grateful for* Anyway, since I'm back to school now (NOOOOOOOO!) as many others are, I wish you all the grades you need, or better! And if you're working, I wish you have a job that is not boring and does not make you feel awful. Or I wish you pay rises and promotions!

Disclaimer: Nope! Don't own 'em!

'Cry, it's because we get hurt and get passionate

That we live to the fullest'

EVO, Digimon Tamers Evolution Theme (Wrong season, but it's a nice quote)

It turned out that Quatre already knew that Trowa wasn't dead, or at least to some extent did. Hiiro's confirmation of his suspicions made him a little happier for perhaps a second, but it seemed that this was not the only problem, and never would be. As for explaining why he wasn't eating or sleeping, it was simply because he wasn't hungry or tired. He said he was fine except for an awful headache at the moment. The nurse had come back, with some lovely Ibuprofen and Codeine tablets (known in England as Nurofen Plus!) and sent the three of them away. Keika was still pretty sure she'd gone unnoticed, simply observing the conversation that made no sense. There were so many questions. Where was Sanq? Who was Trowa? Why would Trowa be dead? She had concluded that she would never get a straight answer out of either of these two, and left it at that. By that time anyway, the bell had since rung, and it was break. Or rather, the bell for the next lesson was about to ring. Keika went away for a lovely dance lesson, not that anyone noticed. Hiiro went to play some B-Ball (well, I need to get rid of him) and Quatre went to the library.

In the Odaiba High library, lots of people went in and out daily. Bookcases lined the walls, and made aisles, and stairs lead up to more bookcases, all filled with books of many different subjects. There were many tables, and a small serving window, where they sold drinks, and at lunch, food. It was a good idea, as many used the library, and being able to get food if you are studying for an exam is fairly lovely.

Quatre walked around the bookcases. It was so odd to see so many books, real ink-on-paper books, in one place. Most books were disks for laptops or cartridges for flimseys(1) He had a lot of books himself, books with stories, books with information, books with music… but it still seemed so odd, all the same. He picked up a book on philosophy, one on psychology, and a book he'd never heard of called 'To Kill A Mockingbird'(2). Taking the paper to an empty table he started reading the story.

About twenty minutes later, someone started tugging on the book. Distracted, he looked up, and was about to ask why whomever couldn't get their own copy, when Sora smiled.

"Hello! You seem mighty interested in that book you know,"

"It's an interesting book."

"Yes… and it's a Japanese Translation, and you're not Japanese, as you probably know."

"Your point being…?"

"Does everyone speak Japanese where you come from?"

"No… everyone speaks Basic, which is just a combination of just about every language. I just know Japanese as well."

"Whatever… been reading it for long?"

"The book? Umm… not really, about twenty minutes I guess…"

"I mean in total."

"I did mean in total."

"Oh." The look of surprise Sora gave didn't go unnoticed. "Right… well you keep on reading. I'm going to get something to drink. Want something? Tea? Coffee? Misc. Beverage?"

"Tea would be nice, thankyou,"

Sora smiled, but still stood there, waiting for the full answer to her question. Not getting it, she pulled the book again. "Well, you want any sugar, milk and the like or what? I'm not a mind reader!"

"Oh… sorry. Three sugars, and milk, please."

Satisfied, Sora went away to get tea. She came back ten minutes later (I know, it's a long time to make two cups of tea) to find Quatre already on the next book.

"Did you get bored of the book or something?" she asked, handing Quatre the sugary milky tea (mmm… just how I like it…)

"No, I finished it."

Sora looked at the book quickly. "Are you serious? You read a book that took me nine hours in under half an hour? What did you do, not pay any attention to the words?"

Quatre was smiling now, and Sora took it as him thinking it funny of how she was behaving.

"It's not funny! I'm one of the fastest readers I know! Only beaten by Izzy, who knocked this one off in 6 hours straight!"

"I read fast."(3)

It seemed the only answer, and Sora sighed, pulling up a chair and delving into the case thingy to retrieve the book she was reading. It was some book on scientific anomalies. She read it, sipped tea, read, sipped, ad carried on this routine until she had nothing left to sip. She looked up, to find her prey gone, along with the books, but not the case. _He's still here, _she thought quickly, _guess he went to find more books._ Knowing her things were safe, Sora went to have a look around.

*~*~*

Quatre settled into the dark corner and sighed. Sora was nice enough, she was a distraction to say the least. She felt powerful emotions, that changed a lot, but she was fun. However, her feelings were quickly overwhelming. It was obvious she liked him, and the emotions were about as subtle as a heard of giant flying elephants in tutu's, ballet dancing in the middle of a world-and-space-wide broadcast. He couldn't figure out WHY she liked him, because he could see someone else for her. But then, Quatre is a boy, and wouldn't get girl things. At least he probably wouldn't if he didn't happen to have 29 sisters of various ages.

But now, away from her, and form the other people in the library, Quatre found himself feeling very alone. It wasn't like the feeling was unusual, with his ability he felt he needed to be around people. It helped to be around other people, to take his mind off of things even a little. But then, everyone needs to be alone at some point, and 'face the music' so to say.

Hiiro had said that Trowa was alive so now he shouldn't be guilty. Is that how easy it was for Hiiro? He did everything by his heart, so he'd never regret. He never had anything to tell people, because if there was something wrong he would be able to sort it out. It must be wonderful to be Hiiro. All Quatre saw himself as was someone seeking attention, someone everyone else would get along fine without. He never told anyone what was wrong in an attempt to make them stop worrying, but more and more they treated him like fragile glass.

_Why can't people leave me alone? Why can't they only be there when I really need them? Nobody needs me, so why do they care?_

*~*~*

Sora found herself drawn to the furthest bookcase up the stairs. It wasn't really any real reason to go if she had a feeling, but as she got closer to her destination she thought she heard someone crying. She stopped, and listened for a while, and heard nothing for a while. She was about to keep walking when she heard what she thought, and realized she wasn't hearing anything. It was something she was hearing in her head. She shrugged it off and went to find her friend.

She found Quatre in the darkest corner, knees drawn to his chest, staring at her blankly. Something akin to a smile was etched on his features, and he looked like he was about to laugh, to cry, or perhaps, to do both.

A mental cry of anguish hit her, and she knelt down by the boy who was fast scaring her. His eyes had taken a dead gray tone, but there was a yellow-gold tint that seemed completely wrong.

"Cat, are you okay?"

The fact she didn't get a response would have suited her just fine. But instead, she got a delayed one. And wished she hadn't asked the question.

"I'm fine. In fact, I'm better than fine. Why don't you just run along now?" His voice was calm and even, but with some kind of psychotic lilt. She had to wonder what was wrong, and felt somewhat sympathetic.

"I don't need your sympathy."

Sora blinked. She hadn't expected that.

"I said: I don't need your sympathy. I don't need anyone's. And before you ask again, I am perfectly fine. Just tell me where to find Hiiro and I'll be ever so happy."

Sora could hear sarcasm, calmness, power, something that scared her to no end, but at the same, a silent pleading for help, fear, remorse, guilt. She shouldn't be able to pick up so many things in a small sentence, but for some reason at this moment she did. She could suddenly relate to the fear, wondering suddenly why Quatre would need to ask where Hiiro was. They had gone their separate ways and stated where they were going. She could tell he was not a forgetful person; so who was she speaking to now? Fear was starting to take hold as she felt someone calling for her help. She needed to know what was wrong, with who, where, why, how she knew, and the like.

"You're scared."

Sora was broken from her thoughts and blinked once more. How could Quatre, or whoever he was, know that? Was it that obvious?

"Why are you scared?"

Blinking again. For some reason she couldn't think of much else to do.

"I understand. You should be scared."

Sora stood slowly, as if preparing to turn and run like the wind. She was wondering why she was scared herself. But curiosity got the better of her, as it has many. The way he was saying things, just lead to people wanting to know more. So she asked.

"How do you know?"

The answer seemed to be spoken as if it was so obvious.

"Because it's so blatant,"

Quatre was smirking. There was something completely wrong about his tone of voice, the words he spoke, the way he was acting, and his eyes… her mind was set to run like hell and find Hiiro. She stared to leave.

"Wait. I want to know where Hiiro is."

Sora did as she was told and stopped. She didn't dare turn around to be faced with those eyes.

"I don't know where he is,"

"Then why are you going to him?"

How had he known that? Was it the course of action so obvious? "Well, you don't know where he is, so I guess I'll go find him for you. You said you wanted him, right? I'll go get him!" She could not hide the fact she was nervous for love nor money. Well, wouldn't you be nervous if someone you don't know too well suddenly seems to have a split personality or something?

"No. You wont. I'd like to… _surprise_ him." There was something that seemed to suggest that she needed to run, to hide, to be anywhere that wasn't near Quatre. But still, there was something there, a silent pleading for her to find Hiiro ASAP.

"But really, I could do it for you! It's not a problem!" She forced back the nervous laughter as she started to walk again.

"It is a problem. You will stay here. Do you understand?"

Sora stopped dead. That voice, it was cold, dark, menacing, threatening, powerful, but still there it was, the quiet pleads to find help in anyone if she herself could not help. She turned back round to face him.

He was almost directly behind her, and even though he was shorter and smaller, he was intimidating. She wanted to do something. Then she had something akin to light-bulbs and said, "Okay then! Why not we just go together then, huh? Or we could both look, it's a pretty big school, he could be anywhere!" She latched onto his arm, only to have it roughly shoved off. "Aw come on, if it's as urgent as you're making it out to be, then you'll need some help, right?" She knew she was being sincere. Something in his tone told her this was urgent. She thought it was urgent. He seemed to contemplate this, but before having a proper chance she grabbed his hand and would have pulled him down the stairs had it not been for the sudden feeling she got. He could dimly note them both sinking to the ground as an odd form of pain overtook all her senses. She wanted to scream, but could not find the voice. She wanted to move, but her body would not comply. She felt the familiar wave closing, one full of fear, guilt, sadness, remorse and the like. She could hazily feel hot salty liquid make tracks down her face, when suddenly everything rushed back to her. She was kneeling on the floor, as was Quatre. She couldn't pay attention to anything for the second, as the dull throb in her head left far too slowly for her liking. Her thoughts snapped back, and she looked around quickly. Her hand was on the floor. She looked at Quatre. He was clutching his chest and looked in an awful lot of pain.

"Quatre…?"

She didn't get a reply. Only harsh breaths. She looked at the surroundings once more. They were still in the corner, and no one could see them. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what was wrong. Should she go and find someone like the nurse?

"Quatre… what's wrong?"

His eyes, previously shut, opened and bore into her. She felt odd under his full attention. Like he could see her every secret.

"Find… Hiiro…!"

*~*~*

Scoring a fifth time, Hiiro smiled. It felt nice to be good at something, as others darted around, trying to match him, but his skills far exceeded there own. Being a Gundam Pilot was probably an unfair advantage of course, but he'd won the respect of his peers. He prepared to start yet another game with another individual, he saw from the corner of his eye one of those CCs, the Sora girl, running full steam towards the court. He thought maybe she wanted to play him, but dismissed the thought as soon as he saw the urgent look on her face. He left the court, leaving everyone else in the dark.

"Hiiro!" Sora was practically screeching. Something had to be wrong.

"What?" he spoke in his famous deadpan.

"Just follow me!" She was rushing, and seemed to be avoiding entering the school itself. Maybe it was because you weren't allowed to run in the halls. That must mean that this was worth his attention. They finally came to the outdoor entrance to the library, and he was sure that had the door not been open she would have run clean through it. He followed her up the stairs slowly as she rushed ahead, but waited at the top. She slowed considerably to catch her breath after all that rushing. She'd learned from someone else that Hiiro was playing anyone and everyone at B-Ball, but the court was on the other side of the building. She stopped to breathe and Hiiro waited patiently. Finally she caught her breath and started to talk, rather slowly.

"Hiiro, you do know how difficult you are to find at times, don't you? Cat told me to find you. First he was talking about surprising you, and he didn't know where you were. I don't know why though, you two always seem to know where the other is. But when he was talking there was… something _wrong_. Then things went fuzzy… and then he told me to get you." By the time she was done with the miniscule explanation, they were by the dark corner, and Quatre seemed to be asleep against one of the many bookcases. He was shaking ever so slightly, and beads of perspiration covered his face. Sora had to wonder when he had fallen asleep, or how. She went to try and wake him up.

"Come on Cat, up you get. You're not supposed to sleep in school, remember? I got Hii-kun for you,"

She shook him lightly, but the contact left her with strange flashes of images that fleeted before she could grasp proper hold. She stopped, and his eyes snapped open.

"Thankyou… Sora… I'm sorry…"

She couldn't quite contemplate what he meant, but decided that whatever was to be sorry about was forgiven. Quatre looked up at Hiiro, shame and guilt blatant. Sora backed away as Hiiro knelt beside the smaller boy.

"It's alright," he whispered, Sora hearing something oddly comforting in what was usually a monotonous drone. He cared.

"Hiiro… I-"

"It's okay now," Hiiro spoke with such certitude it was hard to refute him. "It's okay. Don't worry."

Hiiro pulled Quatre into a tight embrace, to chase away demons, as his shirt soon became damp and warm, muffling quiet sobs. He looked to Sora and smiled gently, a silent thank you.

*~*~*

Sora tasted the tea, and grimaced instantly.

"Ewww, just how much sugar is in that?"

Quatre smiled. "That's mine. This one is yours."

Sora tasted the other cup, but it was still sweeter than usual.

"I only take one sugar."

"Yeah, well, my sister always says that you should drink tea with an extra sugar for shock."

"And just how many sugars are in yours?"

"Well, I take three, so I've got five. One for shock, one for good luck."

Hiiro sipped a black coffee nonchalantly.

"I don't see why you don't just drink coffee anyway. It's better for keeping you awake."

"Caffeine is bad for me. It makes me hyper."

"And 5 sugars in a small cup of tea doesn't?"

"Nope!"

Hiiro was forced to smile. How odd it was to be in this place, and just have the sort of conversations normal teenagers would. Well, almost normal.

TO BE CONTINUED

(1) I made up flimsey. It's just like a small thing with a screen and a thin cartridge pack. Like a Game Boy, but thinner, and it can be folded up and the like.

(2) I'm doing 'To Kill A Mockingbird' at school at the moment, and I don't know what's with the philosophy book. The psychology one was to do with my old story Crossing Paths. Sora read a lot of Psychology books in that

(3) Well, he's definitely got way above average intelligence, and I guess he has to read al sorts of things fast, so he read a book in a half-hour. It actually did take me about 11 hours total.

Well, that it! I'm REALLY tired now, gotta sleep… please review so my lack of sleep can be hypered by reviews!


	11. Every time we say goodbye

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Minako: Two weeks… sorry people… school is SO draining… not to mention I think I sprained my wrist…

Trowa: Your LEFT wrist no less. Have you been messing with my mech?

Minako: No honey. Run along now.

Trowa: //.^**

Minako: Don't think I don't know what you are saying Trowa Barton! I've been watching a bunch of GWing tapes, but only up to episode 19, and I watch EWaltz!

Trowa: I don't think anyone cares, just get on with the story!

Minako: Sheesh, calm down honey!

Trowa: *Through gritted teeth* Stop calling me 'honey' or I might decide I need some target practice

Minako: ^.^******

Disclaimer: I don't own them! I don't I swear! I don't own them! I'm sure you don't care! Hey, I made a rhyme!

 'Try, sometimes it's kindness we bear our fangs at

When there's something we want to protect'

EVO, Tamers Evolution Theme. I like that song, I might run it through this.

'I kill crazy people'

Hiiro, of course.

Outside the stars blinked, their masses shining through the dark that penetrated every corner. The moon was new, no longer hanging in the sky as it usually did. There was not a cloud in sight, and had he known anyway, he was sure he would have seen constellations clearly.

Hiiro Watched through the cold glass pane, as he though carefully, looking at the sky with the look of a child who had never seen stars and a man who had walked among them. In reality, both side were true. He'd never really looked at stars before, never seen their beauty, their strength. They had a habit of staying put. The stars didn't move, the Earth did. It was amazing in a way. But still, he looked into the night sky and subconsciously plotted the Lagrange points in the studded sky. He couldn't remember living on Earth for very long as a child, only for a week or so in fact. So when he was a child the moon was simple, a satellite that orbited Earth, where many companies owned factories and the like. But whenever he was on Earth… the moon had a slightly eerie feel about it. Sometimes it hung far away, a crisp white against the cloudy dark. And others, it hung low in the sky, almost like a sun that refused to set, and everywhere looked brightened by the creamy color. It was always weird for him to watch the moon cycles on Earth, as in the colonies it was just there.

But then, everything in this world seemed irrational. He could remember the names of places, and they were here. But anything else was beyond them. He wondered if in this place the moon and the stars were something special, something powerful, as opposed to simple bundles of gas and rock. It was an odd thought. Illogical. Instead, he focused on what was happening to _him_. In this place, he felt different. He felt like someone he was once. It was… interesting. Here he was, displaying kindness and compassion and concern and friendship and many other things openly, unlike the usual subtleties he used to hide that side from others. He was so discrete, people didn't tend to know when he was doing something to benefit them. He masked it well. But then, there would always be some people who could see straight through him…

He wondered if it would be the same back home. Would this new attitude remain with him? Would he stay the same? These people, those who he had met in this place, seemed to know him so well. How would they react if they saw his other side? That dream… Well, it wouldn't matter, because when he got back home, if ever, he would never have to see them again. He could go back to being the Hiiro Yui everyone knows and fears. He would have to keep acting, keep the mask of disposition. Everything he had here… it was all weakness. Those traits in a person were weaknesses, things the enemy could exploit. Weaknesses…

_Quatre…_

Was that the answer he was looking for? Quatre. He was fighting, but still… he still held on to weaknesses like compassion, kindness… but… Quatre was strong, stronger than he knew. Hiiro could see it. Hiiro wanted to hide the side of him that cared, brought up believing it was a weakness. The only people who could stand to be around him long were the other pilots, and Relena… he couldn't even get close to those who wanted to, but he was strong… right? He had strength, but what he wanted perhaps, was respect. He didn't have respect, only people fearing him and his abilities. People stayed away, and Hiiro gave them no real reason to approach him anyway… but Quatre… was different. He was kind, compassionate, and as approachable as they come. People liked to be around him, and he respect, not for what he was, but who. His weaknesses were his strengths. So how was Hiiro so convinced that this side of his own personality was useless?

"So you found a way to send them home, huh?"

Izzy sighed and nodded. "Yeah, Gennai sent an email, saying he had everything ready for whenever they are."

Taichi' turn to sigh now. "I know that they should go home and all, but… I'm gonna miss them, I guess."

"I know what you mean. They've become a regular part of our routine. The death-threats, the constant holes in the walls… I'm going to miss that…"

"Well, I guess going home is the best thing for them, I mean, they both probably wanna get back to fighting a war or something… I guess that's what's best…"

_The Next Day_

As we visit our wonderful group of chosen children gathered in the infamous computer room, there were smiles and sighs of nostalgia already.

"So they can go home, then? I'll bet they were relieved when you told them!" Miyako pronounced proudly.

"Well… that's the thing, we haven't told them yet. They may not WANT to leave," Taichi commented quietly.

"How could you not have told them?"

"They aren't in school, I don't have a phone number or address, and Hiiro seems to have his computer turned off. I just can't help but wonder why…"

Sora sighed. She knew why…

"Yeah, well, that's all we have to say on the matter. As those high-up dudes in big companies would say, MEETING AJOURNED!" Daisuke crooned, as all made their separate ways. It did, however, seem that some of them were having a meeting of their own. Sora walked past Taichi and Koushiro with inconspicuously slow movements, but as she was about to pass them, she whispered,

"Meeting in the library. Now."

"Sora, what exactly is this about?"

"I don't think we should send them back."

Taichi and Koushiro looked at Sora, stern expression firmly in place.

"Why not? Surely it would be better for us, and them!"

"NO!"

This was a little odd. Sora wasn't one to shout. But when she did, it was important.

"You don't understand, I can't let them go back!"

"But why not?"

"Don't you see it? I can't. I just can't. I don't want them to have to go back to fight a war where they'll eventually lose their lives. People only have so much luck, and I can't help but think theirs has run out!"

"They know the risk, and it seems they want to go home. It should let them."

"I don't expect you to understand…" Sora stopped to gather her thoughts carefully, "because you haven't seen what I have. Do you really think that when they are where they came from they'll be the same people we've met?"

"Well, this is goodbye, I guess." Taichi smiled lightly, though a little depressed at having to say goodbye to new friends so quickly. And he was just getting used to the casual friendly threats on his life. Likewise feelings were shared by most of the others. Over the past couple of weeks, they'd learned a lot about Hiiro. It felt like they'd known him forever, and were sure that this was just the kind of person he was. Still, Taichi thought he didn't know nearly enough about Quatre. He was quiet, and there seemed to be something about him. But it didn't really matter. None of the Chosen were going to see these two for a long while, if not ever.

"Yeah. See you."

There was a flash of light, and then-

"WHAT THE--?"

A cloaked figure sat toying with a tiny sphere of an odd blue color. His hands never once touched it; the sphere floated of it's own accord. A second cloaked figure approached the first, and pulled back it's hood to reveal the youthful form of Gennai.

"Did you really have to do that?" Gennai asked the cloak guy.

"Yes. They need to see."

"But what is that you have?"

The cloak guy gave an odd sort of laughing noise. "See for your self why don't you?" The sphere glowed dimly and a tiny blast of sorts shot out.

Gennai looked shocked, for certain. "How did you--?"

"That's not for discussion," the cloak replied sternly. "All you need to know is that I will find out the access."

Gennai slumped his shoulders in defeat, and the cloak pushed back his own hood, to reveal a man about as old as Young Gennai, with short dark hair with eyes that matched. He returned to throwing the sphere around.

"You've probably figured out how I got this, and from who So I won't tell you."

"From-- you don't mean--?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

"But do you even know the consequences?"

"If I cared, they might matter. All that matters is finding the access." The man smirked, and faced away,

"Mr Clay, I can't believe that you would do something like this…"

"Believe it old man, believe it."

Clay smirked more, and clutched the sphere firmly in his hand.

TO BE CONTINUED

What did Minako do? Screw with the plot more? Bet you wanna know what happened. Guess! Oh, and please, review! Criticism is oh so very welcome!


	12. Cry, it's good to cry

Half A Chance – At Innocence

Hey y'all! Sorry about the last chapter. Awful, I know. But I wasn't exactly inspired. This, however, is the last chapter. But never fear! For this is a Story Arc! And so, I'd like very much if you guys could bring my review total for this story up to 20. That would only take two reviews. But, I can't be sure of when the next story will be. Bear with me. Oh, and can anyone give me a site for angsty 3+4 fics? Please no one tell me **www.txq.nu** I've pretty much exhausted their resources. Oh yeah, go to that site. It's a great 3X4 dedicated place. Not enough of them around, you know… and would anyone give me some good (angsty once more) 1+4 fics? I need something to read…

Leita, I'm pretty sure you've waited for this. And I can't wait to continue our papers…

Card Mistress, you've given me so much support over these few weeks. Thanks ever so much!

Other reviews who I can't remember to name, you also have given me tons of support. I Just remember CM because she sends long-ish reviews every chapter.

Katoru, where are you? You haven't posted your fic, or reviewed me! Do both! Do both!

Minako: Last chapter you guys!

Hiiro: And so we descend upon the happy land of not…

Disclaimer: I'm in school. I wasn't born when the Gundam concept first came to be. I was 8/9 when Gundam Wing was released in Japan. I live in the UK, and always have. I get the feeling I don't own Gundam Wing. Do you?

"WHAT THE--?" Was the all too familiar phrase. And so we find our two heroes back home where they belong. Even in Sanq to be exact. In the school, actually. So imagine our confusion over them being shocked. Or rather, imagine our confusion that the shocked voice sounds remarkably like Taichi Yagami. Imagine our confusion when we see what looks remarkably like a dog-pile of the Chosen Children of D-2. Imagine our confusion when that's exactly what it is.

"How did—where are—what the—how the—when did—Gah! Form coherent sentences you dolt!"

In somewhere else about the school in Sanq, we find yet another lost person wandering around like a lost person would. Alas, dear Keika, you have been dragged into this abyss of confusion!

Back to our… heroes. I'll use the tern loosely.

"How exactly did we end up here? And where exactly is here? Could there have been some kind of rip in the rift? This is all so frustrating… I'm certainly not anywhere I recognize…" the Izumi youth mused loudly. The room, being a dorm room, was surprisingly dark; thick curtains drawn, and no lights on. Yep, just how it was left. Not surprising that our Chosen, who are yet to notice the pilots, all screamed as the door was abruptly opened. A blinking Noin and Relena entered. In a slight state of shock, Relena simply stated "Girls aren't supposed to be in boys dorm rooms!"

This was when the pilots decided to make themselves known. The Chosen noticed Relena simply glowing when she noticed someone else in the room, and Noin seemed equally pleased. She side-stepped the dog-pile and smiled.

"Welcome back. That was a rather… abrupt entry, if I don't say so myself. Why exactly is there a pile of people in here anyway?"

Hiiro smirked. It was strange how Noin could take all this in her stride. Well, actually it wasn't. It was obvious she'd been around Relena too much. One couldn't help but observe useless things like that in odd situations. It was obvious their… friends (loosely used!) had returned with them, unwillingly, apparently. So, Hiiro took the initiative to help them up and do the introduction bits we all loathe.

So, introductions aside, Relena showed them round, only to bump into Keika, who was more confused than ever. But, she saw Hiiro and smiled brightly. It was rather a Relena-esque move. But now, later, she spotted him. Hiiro, that kind person she had met not only days ago. Yes, kind. He was nice, and pleasant, albeit rather unorthodox, and he was rather the looker. Not to mention he had a nice voice. He was fencing, with a fork-eyebrowed young woman by the name of Dorothy Catalonia. Keika seemed to get the impression she was important, and listened closely to the match, as Dorothy was asking Hiiro questions. Questions that she was SURE he was giving the wrong answers to. But then, abruptly, it ended. With Dorothy beaten, Hiiro trailed off on his own, like she had seen him do often in just two short days. She had been under the impression he was close friends with Quatre, as they barely left each other's sides, but they seemed a LOT more detached here. And it was obvious to her that this Relena woman has some sort of thing for Hiiro, however small. She seemed more like she'd been more over the top previously, but now was content with watching. Like she'd seen something special, and it wasn't between her and him…

As she noticed Hiiro's rather uncouth attitude, she noticed he didn't talk much, didn't joke like he always did, was reclusive and wandered off without telling anyone. Basically, he was an cold loner at the moment, it seemed. She had to wonder; what had provoked such a change? How could he be so different all of a sudden? Was it the people he was with, where he was? As she watched carefully, she noted that not one of the people who seemed to belong here noticed. So, now she would confront him.

"Hey, Hiiro!"

"Hn."

He leaned against a wall, and she studied his profile. Man, he was gorgeous!

"Well, I was wondering if you would like to join the rest of us in a game? I think we're playing Monopoly or something silly like that!"

"Hn."

Her smiled faltered. It seemed he wanted to be left alone.

"So, do you want to?"

"I'm busy. Leave me alone."

"But… Hiiro… why? You're acting so differently now…"

"Catch the drift. Leave me alone. Do you think I care about your trivialities? Do you think you know me?"

This time she was in a slight state of shock.

He was starting off again. She said the only thing that came to her.

"Who… who are you?"

He seemed to hesitate slightly, as if stung. But he turned his back on her, and walked away. But as he left, she caught what he said.

"Not who you think."

(Skipping a bunch of stuff – meet Epyon!)

Hiiro couldn't have gotten out of the cockpit faster if he wanted to. This new Gundam, it had that god-awful system in it. He'd tried the system before. It was the same this time though. Slowly, he lost his sense of self. The machine was taking over, telling him how to achieve this mission. He was barely aware of what he was doing. He was moving, attacking, but he could barely tell. Now all he wanted was to get away from that accursed system and that accursed machine more than ever.

It was a dizzying blow. To suddenly thrown back into this, after a few weeks of peace, and regular human interaction. It was a blow that hurt like hell, because it was fate telling him once again that there was a war going on, and he was one of the few who could stop it. He felt alone. It didn't even make sense any more. In the beginning it was so simple. He fought to protect the colonies. But then, the colonies turned against him. But still, he kept fighting. Who was he fighting for now though? Sanq. He was trying to protect the pacifist nation. But wasn't it hypocritical to use weapons to protect a nation promoting total pacifism? He was lost in the myriad of tangled thoughts brought to the front of his mind by the system. He was forced to question himself, and that is not what a soldier should do. They should be sure of what they're thinking. The system, it had made him want to fight so much. He kept looking for his enemy, kept seeing it in everyone. It was frustrating.

He was interrupted from his reverie by the harshly echoing sound of someone running in his general direction. He noted dimly at that time that he was on the floor, curled up, and resting his head on his arms, positioned over his knees, and slowly his arms were becoming a little damp. Crying. He was crying. How long had it been since he'd cried? It felt like forever. Memories flooded him as the dams broke. He was scared, sad, angry at his weakness…

He was alone.

It was more like he'd realized for the first time, he was alone. He'd always been alone. But it had never bothered him. He'd never needed anyone to talk to, anyone to support him, anyone to care. But now, he did. And there was no one. He was truly alone. And it felt awful.

He may have been closing himself off from all distractions, but somehow he couldn't ignore there was someone next to him now. He was blinking through tears, to try and see. But he wasn't used to crying. He was lost.

"Hiiro…"

He could hear fine, even though it felt as if his heart throbbed in his ear.

"Quatre."

He hadn't noticed just how cold he was feeling until now, as he was drawn into a comforting embrace. In the weeks they had been in that other world, the action had become almost commonplace. But it had been the other way around. Now it was he being protected against the demons that threatened him. It was still strange.

"I… I don't want to do this anymore!" He suddenly blurted. It felt good to say it. He kept talking, the words tumbling over each other.

"I don't want to fight anymore! Children… children aren't supposed to fight wars! Children aren't supposed to kill! But that's all I am… I'm just a kid… how did this happen? Why me? I don't want to do it now! I don't want to kill anymore! Why can't it just stop?" His self-control lost, he wept. He wept for all those he'd killed in battle, all those innocents he'd accidentally killed, all the times he'd done things he didn't want to do. He cried, and cried, as though he couldn't stop.

"Shh… it's okay to cry. No one wants to fight anymore, no one ever wanted to. But you have a pure heart, and you must show this world what war does. Set them an example so this wont happen again."

Hiiro cried until there were no more tears to cry. It was strange. After holding in everything for so long, he felt as though somehow he'd been cleansed. And now, as he felt himself grow a little stronger, he noticed that perhaps he hadn't been the only one crying. And so now he knew.

He was no longer alone.

*~*~*

Ken wandered around the place as he saw lights streaming onto balconies, contrasting against the darkness outside. He wasn't lost, just not sure of where exactly he was going, or why. Then he felt he knew the reason.

Looking up he could see the light flitting over spherical shapes that drifted into the night sky and disappeared. He almost laughed to himself. _Bubbles, _he thought. It had been such a long time since he'd done something as childish as blowing soap bubbles, and he was sure no one in this school would do such a thing. He moved closer, and watched the bubbles. He couldn't see who was blowing them, but he saw largish bubbles bouncing around, and multitudes of almost uniform-sized ones following. He smiled more.

Hiiro and Quatre were giggling and blowing bubbles like it was something one would do every day. Ken watched, and said nothing, as memories divulged him. Memories of his brother(1). He couldn't help but smile at them, as he noted he could remember the good along with the bad once again. And he focused on the good. He remembered how his brother had told him how kind and gentle he was, and how he should never loose that. But then, he did. Ken couldn't forget that part. It was then he didn't notice the apparatus for bubble-blowing being practically shoved in his face. He took the stuff, and blew his own special bubbles. The ones his brother always prided him in doing.

It was funny, how something as simple as soapy water and circles, could make him remember who he had been, and who he wanted to remain. It was like he was being taught a lesson about childhood by people he thought had never truly had the chance to be children. But then, when he thought about it, he realized maybe he was wrong.

Perhaps instead of viewing these two pilots as people forced to grow up too fast, forced into a world where adults belong, he should see them as he did now. Perhaps they were much wiser, more mature than many other children, but they were children all the same, ones who never got the chance to grow up. All they were doing was showing the world what children become. Maybe instead of being stained in blood, they were more innocent then most.

As the night passed by, Ken couldn't help but dwell on these thoughts. Perhaps all of us are innocent in war until the blood spilt doesn't mean anything to us. Or maybe he was wrong. Well, it didn't really matter.

If they had a chance, a chance for Innocence, where would it be?

Well, they had half a chance.

--END—

(1) If you've watched Digimon 02 you know there is this whole episode about Ken, and it has a lot about blowing bubbles. You see, Ken's brother Sam said that Ken was better at blowing bubbles because he was kind and gentle, while Sam would try and get his too big too fast and they would pop. Then Sam died and Ken went crazy. Sound familiar? Thought so. If it doesn't, think about it a little more carefully.

Thus ends Half A Chance – At Innocence 

Review!


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